On 6 February, 2023 Southern Turkey and the adjoining areas in Syria were hit by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake followed by several aftershocks. The tremors have flattened buildings and destroyed roads and other infrastructure. At least 35,000 casualties (UPDATE) have occurred across Turkey and Syria, with the vast majority being in the former nation. A news report cited the Turkish environment minister saying that 24,921 buildings across the region had collapsed. What...

A decade ago, this figure was around 40%. This is leading to an increasingly polarised stock market - Marcellus/The Wire The United Payments Interface and the digitisation of business activity in India are one of the several factors driving an exponential surge in the concentration of corporate profitability in India. Improvements in transport infrastructure (e.g., the highway network has doubled over the past decade), the introduction of GST (in 2017) and new...

Jharkhand's government schools have a massive teacher shortage, a survey by Gyan Vigyan Samiti Jharkhand has found. The survey was conducted in 138 primary and upper primary schools between September and October 2022 to assess their condition after the Covid-19 pandemic. Jharkhand's school system was shut for two years, among the longest in the world. Teachers told the surveyors they felt that most students had forgotten how to read and...

-Hindustan Times WHO will be updating the list of priority pathogens—agents that can cause outbreaks or pandemics—to guide global investment, research and development, especially in vaccines, tests and treatments, the UN health body announced. India is working on a plan to effectively combat public health emergencies and disease outbreaks in future, according to people familiar with the matter, even as WHO on Monday announced it will be identifying pathogens that could cause...

--Press release by National Coalition on the Education Emergency dated November 9, 2022 The Delhi government had announced the closure of primary schools last week, as recommended by the NCPCR, owing to the air pollution crisis in the city. While the concern about the health and well-being of children is certainly valid, the response to such a crisis needs to take into account other contributing factors such as the importance of...