-The Hindu 12-member team to go beyond present crisis, prepare road map for transparent budgeting with States The Supreme Court has constituted a 12-member National Task Force to streamline and ensure the “effective and transparent” allocation of liquid medical oxygen on a “scientific, rational and equitable basis” to States and Union Territories fighting COVID-19. The apex court had expressed its dissatisfaction at the Centre’s earlier “oxygen-for-bed” formula. This “rough-and-ready” arrangement, as the court...

-Newslaundry.com According to their data, four journalists died every day on average in the first six days of May. At least 171 journalists have lost their lives to Covid-19 since April 2020, according to a list compiled by Rate The Debate Campaign, and initiated by the Institute of Perception Studies, Delhi. The list, updated on May 6, shows that 121 journalists died this year alone, with the most deaths, 90, taking place in...

-TheIndiaForum.in Aprajita Sarcar is a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre de Sciences Humaines, New Delhi. She works on histories of reproductive technology, population control and their links to urbanisation in India. India’s family planning programme advertised the small middle-class family as a means to develop the nation. But its top-down approach meant that sterilisations became the default contraceptive option for poor and working class women. This legacy persists. In a letter to the...

India is facing a second and worse wave of Covid-19 pandemic. At this time, the country requires journalism to tell the stories of courage, of loss and grief, of the state of preparedness and about the efforts being made by communities, individuals, civil society and government. Journalists are needed to document with rigour the gaps and lacunae in governance when it appears. At the same time, journalists need to be vigilant about...

-Newslaundry.com AAP government expelled seven reporters of the paper from a Whatsapp group after one of them reported critically on its handling of the oxygen crisis. On May 6, the Delhi government’s Media Cell removed seven Hindustan Times reporters from a Whatsapp group meant for sharing press notes, including a daily health bulletin. Vikas Yogi, the Arvind Kejriwal government’s Chief Media Coordinator who removed the reporters, didn’t offer a reason but journalists in...