-TheWire.in India implemented a lockdown 14 days after it recorded 50 cases. The relatively higher number of cases recorded in India may partly be the result of the government losing two precious weeks before implementing any serious physical distancing measures. In part one of this three-part series, we presented a picture of the spread of COVID-19 in four South Asian countries. In the second part, we discuss two issues: How prepared –...
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Responding to COVID-19 at the grassroots -TR Raghunandan
-The Hindu Kerala and Karnataka have shown how democratic decentralisation has worked in their favour Mahatma Gandhi envisioned that a free India would rest on a foundation of gram panchayats, village republics that governed locally and epitomised Swaraj in practice. B.R. Ambedkar was sceptical; he described the caste-ridden, unequal village society as a cesspool. Yet, he was not unequivocally against decentralisation. Locally relevant initiatives The 73rd Constitutional Amendment mandates the constitution of panchayats at...
More »Slower growth and a tighter fiscal -C Rangarajan and DK Srivastava
-The Hindu India slid into the pandemic crisis in the backdrop of economic downslide; fiscal stimulus has to be structured The impact of COVID-19 will be debilitating for the global as well as the Indian economies. Various institutions have assessed India’s growth prospects for 2020-21 ranging from 0.8% (Fitch) to 4.0% (Asian Development Bank). This wide range indicates the extent of uncertainty and tentative nature of these forecasts. The International Monetary Fund...
More »State brings down infant mortality rate -C Maya
-The Hindu Figure falls to 7, as against the UN-set target of 8 for 2020 Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala): In a significant achievement, Kerala has brought its infant mortality rate (IMR), down from 10 to the single digit of 7 (per 1,000 live births), according to the latest Sample Registration System (SRS) bulletin. This means that Kerala has achieved the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) target for IMR reduction, set at eight for the year...
More »Around 4K objections against draft EIA rules filed from Maharashtra -Badri Chatterjee
-Hindustan Times Mumbai: Alleging that the Centre was diluting environment protection laws to allow construction in ecologically important areas, citizens and environment groups have filed 3,971 objections against the draft environment impact assessment (EIA) notification, 2020 proposed by the Union environment ministry. On March 12, the Union ministry of environment, forests and climate change (MoEFCC) presented the new rules that will replace the 2006 EIA notification, which is presently in force, in...
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