-The Indian Express Many patients also reported their inability to access public insurance schemes like MPJAY due to lack of co-operation from hospitals, and incurring heavy debt to pay their hospital bills for Covid and other emergency health conditions. Pune: Manisha Palekar from Kolhapur narrated the story of her husband, a public school teacher, who tested positive for Covid-19 and had to be admitted to a private hospital, which charged them Rs...

-TheWire.in One of the most disturbing effects of the pandemic has been on the nutritional needs of the disadvantaged. The Budget needs to prioritise addressing this issue. The pandemic led disruptions of nutrition services have exacerbated India’s existing burden of undernutrition. Children did not get the mid-day meals and supplementary nutrition under the anganwadi services scheme they were registered under. Critical health services like immunisation, iron-folic acide and calcium supplementation, treatment of...

-The Indian Express The need of the hour is to expand distribution under the PDS. Failing that, the country is heading towards another round of Wasteful stock accumulation even as poor people struggle to feed their families. The paradox of “hunger amidst plenty” has haunted India for a long time and shows no sign of going away. On the contrary, it reached a new plane in 2020. On the one hand, the...

-Down to Earth Mining and disposal of these elements add to the environmental damages and ecological burden Naturally abundant wind, geothermal, solar, tidal and electric energy are being hastened as the future of the planet's energy needs. And rare earth elements are used in a bevy of technolgies to generate this cleaner, renewable energy. These include wind turbine magnets, solar cells, smartphone components, cells used in electric vehicles, among others. Also called rare earth...

-Livemint.com The government will have to ensure its spending improves economy-wide productivity, and its own revenue-generating capacity, to avoid a stagflationary trap After dithering on a fiscal stimulus package for nearly a year, India’s finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has declared that she will not allow the fiscal deficit number to worry her too much as she pushes spending to revive growth in the upcoming budget. The government hopes that growth will generate higher...