-Down to Earth Poor, marginalised to be worst hit; Economic productivity to be jeopardised too A new report by the World Bank suggests India could soon become one of the first places in the world to experience heatwaves that break the human survivability limit. Climate Investment Opportunities in India’s Cooling Sector said the country is experiencing higher temperatures that arrive earlier and stay far longer. India has witnessed a concurrent increase in meteorological...

-PTI/ Hindustan Times According to the Special Bulletin on Maternal Mortality in India 2018-20, Assam, which has the highest MMR, is followed by Madhya Pradesh with MMR of 173 per lakh live births and Uttar Pradesh 167. Maternal Mortality Ratio has declined from 130 per lakh live births in 2014-16 to 97 per lakh live births in 2018-20, according to a special bulletin released by the office of the Registrar General of...

-The Hindu Poorer States like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar haven’t been able to use the scheme optimally to alleviate poverty, while economically better-off States like Kerala use it as an asset creation tool, say officials The Central government has constituted a committee to review the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme, especially to assess the programme’s efficacy as a poverty alleviation tool. The committee, headed by former...

-The Telegraph State had reported only 1,753 cases and three deaths to National Center for Vector Borne Diseases Control till June Calcutta: The Bengal government is not releasing figures on dengue deaths or the exact area-wise demarcation of zones reporting the maximum number of cases, ostensibly to avoid panic. However, several public health experts contested the purported justification, saying clear communication would be far better to fight a public health scare than the...

-The Telegraph Citizens’ participation in policy-making is an important factor in assessing the quality of democracy Within five days of the announcement of Agnipath, the scheme had been amended 10 times, raising the larger question concerning consultation in policy-making. The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government has taken a number of policy decisions without public consultation — from demonetisation, which saw 60 changes in 43 days, to GST, which has been...