-The Hindu In the FIRst 10 days, grains have reached 2.03 crore of 80 crore beneficiaries: Food Ministry Out of the 40 lakh tonnes of free food grain promised under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana for May, one lakh tonnes have been distributed so far, Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey said on Monday. In the FIRst 10 days, PMGKAY grains have reached 2.03 crore of the 80 crore beneficiaries, with 13 States...

-The Hindu Environment Appraisal Committee which flagged concerns over project has now ‘recommended’ it ‘for grant of terms of reference’ for EIA studies The Environment Appraisal Committee (EAC) - Infrastructure I of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has flagged serious concerns about NITI Aayog’s ambitious project for Great Nicobar Island (‘NITI Aayog vision for Great Nicobar ignores tribal, ecological concerns’, The Hindu, March 21, 2021). The committee has,...

-The Telegraph The government and its health administrators have bungled the roll out of the Covid vaccine but it's the citizenry that will have to play a huge role in controlling the second killer wave This fight against Covid-19 is admittedly the most unprecedented and unpredictable battle that the human race has ever fought against a common enemy; it is not only invisible but also frustratingly elusive. That is why the strategy...

-Hindustan Times The Centre and states are at war, but India urgently needs a coordinated response. It’s not too late. But soon it will be In an influential paper published over a decade ago, the economist Lant Pritchett described India as a “flailing State” — in which the head, that is the elite institutions at the national level (and, in some cases, state level) remained sound and functional but was no longer...

-Financial Express If patents continue to determine global access to vaccines and drugs, then fighting Covid-19 will remain a distant dream for most countries Vaccines are badly required by the world, as are drugs like Remdesivir and Tocilizumab, and medical equipment like ventilators and oxygen concentrators. A large number of countries, particularly low- and middle-income ones, are struggling to access vaccines, drugs and equipment. There cannot be a more important occasion than the...