-The Hindu Health Ministry provides break-up of expected vaccine delivery schedule to Supreme Court Bharat Biotech is yet to begin supply for a batch of vaccines, an order for which was placed by the Health Ministry in May, according to an affidavit filed by the Ministry in the Supreme Court on Saturday. The Health Ministry told the apex court that it expected to receive at least 51 crore doses from January-July. Thirty two...

-The Hindu Over 2 lakh households have exhausted quota. More than 2 lakh rural households have already completed their guaranteed 100 days of employment under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme within the first three months of the financial year, according to the scheme’s database. This is higher than seen at the same time last year, indicating even higher demand for work than 2020-21’s unprecedented levels. Given the high...

-The Hindu 2021 deaths surge reverses decline in mortality After registering a lower number of deaths overall in 2020 compared to 2019, Kerala witnessed a significant increase in the overall death count due to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, resulting in an estimated 15,222 “excess deaths” till May 31, month-wise data from the Civil Registration System show. The overall “excess deaths” for the period April 2020-May 2021 were 13,868,...

-The Hindu There was a total expenditure of ₹1.34 crore without appropriation by legislature Tamil Nadu’s revenue deficit of ₹23,459.44 crore during 2018-19 was understated by ₹3,757.23 crore and fiscal deficit by ₹1,300.49 crore primarily owing to short transfers totalling ₹1,366 crore towards various reserve funds, such as sinking fund and guarantee redemption fund, according to the Comptroller and Auditor-General’s report on State finances for the year ended March 2019. There were...

-Newsclick.in Rice meant for the poor will be sold at subsidised rates to privately-owned ethanol distilleries. The industries will be given cheap loans and exempted from Environmental Clearances. Is the Modi government subsidising the rich at the cost of the poor by diverting foodgrains meant for the most impoverished sections of the population to private industries for producing alcohol for India’s ethanol blended petrol programme? There’s more: For manufacturing ethanol, foodgrains will not...