-Livemint.com * Central and state taxes make up for 60% of the retail selling price of petrol and over 54% of diesel * On 20 February, petrol price was hiked by record 39 paise per litre and diesel by 37 paise a litre Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das called for reduced indirect taxes on petrol and diesel to contain the fuel prices at a reasonable level. Petrol and diesel prices in...

-Livemint.com Not only Maharashtra, but five other states in the country are also witnessing a surge in daily Covid-19 infections, triggering worries India's total coronavirus active cases currently stand at 1,45,634 including 48,439 and 59,814 active ones from Maharashtra and Kerala, the health ministry said on Sunday. Two states - Kerala and Maharashtra - cumulatively account for more than 74% of India's total active cases. Maharashtra recorded more than 6,000 Covid-19 cases on Saturday...

-The Hindu Researchers noted that the changes in the Indian Ocean temperature have a huge effect on the rainfall in the region The quiet, sleepy, yet mesmerising village of Mawsynram trounced Cherrapunji to become the wettest place in the world. Mawsynram receives over 10,000 millimetres of rain in a year. Decreasing trend A recent study that looked at the rainfall pattern in the past 119 years found a decreasing trend at Cherrapunji and nearby...

-ThePrint.in The mica mining industry today operates via unlicensed middle men and labourers who scavenge for mica in large abandoned mines, or dig holes into the earth for scraps. Giridih, Jhumri Telaiya: For generations, families living in the Koderma and Giridih districts of Jharkhand have survived on the collection and trade of mica — a shimmery, translucent mineral used in cosmetics and automobiles. The mining of mica was once a legal, thriving business...

-The Hindu Subjective well-being and income are intricately linked The question whether the rich are more satisfied with their lives is often taken for granted, even though surveys, like the Gallup World Poll, show that the relationship between subjective well-being and income is often weak, except in low-income countries in Africa and South Asia. Researcher Daniel Kahneman and his collaborators, for example, report that the correlation between household income and reported life...