-The Hindu Evidence of significant disparity in access to online schooling during COVID-19 Schools across the country have now been closed for six months due to COVID-19, but this means vastly different things for different people. For the child in urban Himachal Pradesh, where Internet penetration is higher than 70%, it likely means online schooling, Zoom classes and digital textbooks. For the child in rural Odisha, where less than 6% of households...

-TheWire.in From seeds and machinery to livestock and irrigation, the state needs to change the status quo. One eye must be firmly kept on the future. If Punjab’s agriculture sector is to succeed, it has to think beyond short-term crises such as the current pandemic-induced one. For instance, the Expert Group headed by Montek Singh Ahluwalia has made important recommendations about seeds, agricultural research, livestock, dairy and food processing. It has been noted that...

ActionAid Association's (AAA) national level survey among people dependent on the informal economy during the third phase of the national lockdown towards the end of May 2020 (i.e. between May 14th and May 22nd, 2020) has documented the "nature and extent of the transitions in the lives and livelihoods of informal workers, including migrant workers, during the pandemic and provide[s] an insight into the precarity they experience and the coping...

-Hindustan Times Diesel-run generators used for irrigation not only burnt a hole in their pockets but were also an environmental concern Chandigarh: Solar-powered water pumps have come as a ray of hope for tribal farmers of the remote Spiti valley of Himachal Pradesh that otherwise offers limited livelihood options due to the harsh climate and inhospitable terrain. The cultivated fields in the valley are situated along nullahs and the Spiti river and many...

-The Hindu Business Line In Himachal Pradesh, the scheme comes as a breather to those who lost their jobs Nand Lal was working in an electronics company at Parwanoo, an industrial town in Solan district of Himachal Pradesh, when the first lockdown was announced, in March. He had no choice but to come back to Surah, his village in the Murhag panchayat of Mandi district. Since then, he has already worked for 56...