-Financial Express With the fertility rate falling below replacement, challenges of higher dependency, burgeoning healthcare and social security needs will emerge. India must mount the necessary policy-response The time has come for India to turn a new leaf on population policy. The country’s fertility rate has already fallen below the replacement level, 2, according to the latest data from the National Family Health Survey, which was largely collected before the nation felt...

-Article-14.com The government has rubbished the 2021 Global Hunger Index report saying it does not reflect reality. But the reality is worse because it reflects India’s own pre-Covid data. Current estimates of foodgrain to various welfare programmes reveal serious under-nutrition and wide gaps in Safety Nets for poor. Mumbai: Jolted by the overnight choking of all sources of income for her household with the imposition of a nationwide lockdown on 23 March...

-The Hindu Business Line The development economist, now part of Tamil Nadu’s Economic Advisory Council, says that public expenditure on health is just 0.6 per cent of the state domestic product, one of the lowest ratios among Indian states * Universal quality education, health care and social security are still distant goals * A well-designed system of emergency cash transfers would be quite useful in this situation of recurrent crises, which may last...

The rise in COVID-19 daily new cases and daily new deaths compelled many state governments to impose local level lockdowns during April-May 2021. As of 20th April, 2021, partial lockdowns were noticed in 10 states across the country and complete lockdown was imposed in Delhi. As of 8th May, 2021, nearly the entire country was under complete lockdown as a result of either partial lockdowns and night curfews or complete...

-The Hindu SWAN, which relaunched its helpline in April, releases findings based on over 8,000 callers Bengaluru: Migrant workers, one of the more vulnerable groups left in lurch during the national lockdown called by the Centre last year, are facing another crisis during the second wave of COVID-19. This time around, the problem is compounded by a lack of savings, which they used up last year. Around 92% of the country’s workforce who...