MAHANIRBAN CALCUTTA RESEARCH GROUP (Calcutta Research Group) is offering short-term media grants to reporters, journalists, and media practitioners for investigative studies on the following topics: (a) Frontline Covid warriors like lower level health workers at block and Gram Panchayat or local municipality level, ASHA workers, and nurses and doctors; (b) Initiatives of solidarity with migrant workers undertaken by various civil society organisations, local clubs, municipal councillors, small groups of people,...

-The Indian Express The budget should have shown how serious it was about inclusive growth by announcing direct cash support to informal workers, circular migrants, agricultural labour, in addition to steady in-kind food transfers from the overflowing coffers of the FCI by making PDS universal. India’s annual budget, announced amidst much anticipation, focused on health as one of its key pillars. The fact that health and “inclusive growth” found their way into...

-TheCitizen.in The losses outweigh the gains A report released on January 15 by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs estimates that India has the highest number of international migrants in the world. It found that last year 18 million Indians were living abroad, followed by Mexico 11 million, Russia 11 million, China 10 million, and Syria 8 million. It estimates that 10 million or 1 crore Indians emigrated abroad...

-TheWire.in Development administration is a specialised job. At present, bureaucrats are transferred from one department to another with little attention to whether they have knowledge of agriculture or industries. The new year calls for a basic change in priorities – a need to focus on the development of rural areas. The current farmers’ agitation has thrown into sharp relief the failure of the government to understand the concerns of a large section...

-Scroll.in India has defaulted on its international obligations by interning people in detention centres and depriving them of their right to nationality. More than a year since the final list of Assam’s National Register of Citizens was released on August 31, 2019, the government has neither formally notified it nor issued orders to reject it. This has left the 1,906,657 excluded persons and their families in a state of excruciating uncertainty. Without...