-The Hindu If the poor must stay at home, they need income support and essential services As the novel coronavirus spreads, a double crisis looms over India: a health crisis and an economic crisis. In terms of casualties, the health crisis is still very confined (seven deaths in a country where eight million people die every year), but the numbers are growing fast. Meanwhile, the economic crisis is hitting with full force,...

-The Hindu Support becomes critical as thousands of migrant workers return to villages The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme has been officially shut down in at least seven States, while it is effectively closed in many more, as COVID-19 Lockdowns come into effect across the country. Workers’ collectives are demanding relief in the form of wages during the shutdown, payment of pending dues, and extension of the scheme in...

-Scroll.in One of India’s most renowned epidemiologists cautions against unsustainable Lockdowns and says community participation is the key to fight the disease. Jayaprakash Muliyil is one of India’s foremost epidemiologists, with decades of experience in the study of infectious diseases. The former principal of the Christian Medical College in Vellore spoke to Scroll.in about India’s response to the coronavirus outbreak. He said the stage of community transmission, when the source of infection for...

-Hindustan Times Today’s choices will determine the future of the Indian State’s relationship with citizens The only certainty in the coronavirus-induced global chaos is that the idea of the nation-state as the all-powerful, enforcer of social order is back. After decades of globalisation, neo-liberalisation and privatisation, in this moment of crisis, people across the globe are looking to their national governments and willingly giving up their civil liberties in favour of absolute...

-Hindustan Times Coronavirus in India: Adityanath had formed a high-level committee under the state finance minister Suresh Khanna, comprising agriculture and labour ministers, to decide the nature of the assistance to the labourers. Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath said on Saturday lakhs of daily wage labourers and construction workers will be given Rs 1000 as the state remained under Lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus outbreak. The state government had announced...