-Scroll.in As migrant workers return to the region, the number of cases is rising – as is the backlog of tests. On Sunday morning, June 7, the chief medical officer of Jaunpur district sat in his office, shooting muffled instructions to his staff from behind his N-95 mask. “Arrange 10 mattresses quickly,” he told a man who tentatively stood next to his desk. “We need to prepare 100 beds immediately.” “Why have 25 thalis...
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A Bill to 'corporatise' farming -Sukhpal Singh
-Frontline.in The draft Bill on land leasing in Punjab is aimed at promoting the interests of agribusiness corporations. It will have devastating consequences for peasants in the State. THERE is no doubt that agricultural land leasing laws in India should be amended to make land leasing lawful and easier. The NITI AAYog Report (2016) proposed, on the grounds of efficiency and equity, a formal model law on leasing (Model Agricultural Land Leasing...
More »Getting cash transfers out of a JAM -Jean Drèze and Reetika Khera
-The Hindu For effective cash relief in response to the COVID-19 crisis, the government must think beyond the Jan Dhan Yojana For some years now, the so-called JAM trinity (Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile) has been propounded as a dream cash-transfer infrastructure for India. The term “trinity” itself gives a sense of the faith and fervour this project sought to inspire (why not “trio”?). It was born in chapter 3 of the Economic Survey 2015,...
More »From Health and Harassment to Income Security and Loans, India's Gig Workers Need Support -Zothan Mawii, AAYush Rathi and Ambika Tandon
-TheWire.in Nearly two weeks ago, news broke that a Zomato delivery worker tested positive for COVID-19 in New Delhi. As many as 72 families in the south Delhi neighbourhood where he made deliveries have been quarantined, along with 17 other people he worked with. With the luxury of social distancing not extended to delivery workers, the incident further fuelled the apprehensions and uncertainties that they already were contending with. This was only...
More »Are India’s poor social distancing? Niti AAYog to survey over 100 districts to find out -Amrita Nayak Dutta
-ThePrint.in Niti AAYog will conduct surveys every 2-3 weeks and collate results to see if govt messaging on Covid has reached districts and if govt machinery is working at that level. New Delhi: Government think-tank Niti AAYog will conduct multiple surveys in 112 districts across the country to assess if the poor and vulnerable are following social distancing like their urban counterparts while India deals with the Covid-19 pandemic, ThePrint has learnt. According...
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