-The Hindu Business Line The breaking down of supply chains during Covid has exposed the perils of centralisation. Giving a boost to boutique shops that promote local, nutritious and sustainable food is the way forward The first Satyagraha of Mahatma Gandhi was from Champaran in April 1917. He protested against the high-handedness of the British who coaxed peasants to cultivate ndigo as a cash-crop and later dictated prices. Farmers starved as food...

-The Hindu True self-reliance won’t come from relentless industrialisation, but from localisation and Decentralisation, as demonstrated by these remarkable stories of empowered rural communities Not so long ago, Dalit women farmers in Telangana used to face hunger and deprivation. Today, they have contributed foodgrains for pandemic relief. Farmers on the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border have been sending organic produce to Bengaluru even during the lockdown. And Adivasi villages in central India are using...

-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...

These days a lot many articles, reports, documents, etc. are appearing in the public domain on Coronavirus infection and related issues. An attempt has been made in the present news alert to put together in one place some of the best articles, reports, blogs, webinars, podcasts, etc., which can be useful for our readers. We have divided the resources under various themes for the convenience of our readers and social media...

-The Hindu Even as States have taken up positions of leadership in the pandemic response, federal limitations are becoming hurdles Over the course of the last few weeks, as we have found ourselves in the throes of a pandemic, one of the striking features of governance has been the signal role played by State Chief Ministers across India. Even before the Union government invoked the Disaster Management Act, 2005, many State governments...