-The Indian Express Building infrastructure and services, including pre-primary education, maternity, disability and sickness benefits, and long-term care, will help ensure that India’s post-COVID recovery is equitable and gender-inclusive. The Cambridge Dictionary defines “infrastructure” as “the basic systems and services that are needed in order to support an economy.” Traditionally, infrastructure has been understood and interpreted to mean physical, immovable assets, primarily in the energy, transport, telecommunications and water sectors. Over the last...

-The Indian Express For the relatives of deceased patients, queues begin from the wait at hospitals for their dear one's body, for hearse vans to take them to the resting place, to finding a furnace free at a crematorium -- the time for each disposal/cremation has increased because of the Covid-19 protocol. Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Surat, Vadodara: Donning a PPE suit Chirag Patel waited at the Vadaj crematorium in Ahmedabad for his turn...

-The Indian Express The lack of a social safety net resulted in misery for workers, many of whom were suddenly left without means of transport. Women were at the receiving end of the restrictions with the report pointing out how 50 per cent of households surveyed reported that women were spending more time in cooking or fetching FIRewood than before. The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and the restrictions that followed has...

-The Hindu Election Commission also banned BJP leader Rahul Sinha from campaigning for 48 hours for his statement on the Sitalkuchi FIRing incident The Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday issued a notice to West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh for violating provisions of the Model Code of Conduct and Indian Penal Code for making an “inflammatory statement” threatening the people of Bengal during a public rally in Barangar, North 24 Parganas. The EC...

-The Hindu As incidents escalate amid the marathon Assembly polls, analysts point to a historical antecedents of widespread attacks Kolkata: Halfway into the marathon 33-day, eight-phase Assembly polls in West Bengal, leaders of the two major political parties are already talking about how violent these ongoing elections are. The ongoing 2021 poll is being compared to the 2018 panchayat polls in the State. While Union Home Minister and BJP leader Amit Shah said...