-Down to Earth Scarcity, conservation, equitable and fair use of limited resources does not apply to them. Migration is an important phenomenon with considerable social, economic and cultural implications. The ‘ghost-villages’ of Uttarakhand are well-known, abandoned by the local population who had left in search of employment, education, health, water and food security, and basic infrastructure. The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is not just a health crisis. It has highlighted the underlying economic...

-The Hindu The Government needs to reverse its neglect and policy missteps as key indicators show the sector has resilience The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic could be slowly receding with a decline in the official estimates of daily infections and deaths. The economy is also very gradually getting back to normal, with many States beginning to ease some of the restrictions imposed in their lockdowns. However, the challenge of an...

-RuralIndiaOnline.org Poor public infrastructure, unaffordable private medical care and limited access to the state health insurance scheme are pushing Covid patients and their families into long-term debt in Marathwada  Eight days after testing positive for Covid-19, Ramling Sanap died in the hospital where he was being treated for the infection. But it wasn’t the virus that killed him. A few hours before he died, Ramling, 40, had phoned his wife, Rajubai, from the...

-The Hindu This is ‘abject poverty’, and if the economy is to be repaired, the number of the poor has to be meticulously counted The son of a corn merchant-turned sociologist, Charles Booth had little patience for Charles Dickens and others in his time, who used lyrical prose to describe the desperation of the poor in working class London. Booth was also angry, in 1885, over the claims made by F.D. Hyndman,...

-Livemint.com As of 31 March, the total outstanding term deposits with banks in rural India contracted by 1.05% to ₹6.99 trillion from a year earlier Every three months, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) declares region wise data for term deposits. As of 31 March, the total term deposits of commercial banks in India rose 8.42% to ₹86.4 trillion from a year earlier. Term deposits are money that depositors keep in a bank...