-Down to Earth Distress among marginal farmers and unavailability of food to migrant labourers has been largely ignored in Union government’s economic stimulus   Agriculture and allied activities are considered ‘essential’ and officially face no restriction to harvest and supply to the market, even in the middle of the Novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. But an agrarian crisis stemming from systemic failures needs to be considered for immediate policy response. The current distress...

-Down to Earth Less availability of meat, long-term unemployment increased instances of hunting in Tamil Nadu Wildlife hunters — seizing the opportunity provided by the nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the Novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) — have targeted animals in Tamil Nadu’s biodiversity-rich areas. The state has a lot of biodiversity: From deciduous forests to the Western Ghats that are home to rare animals and plants. Restricted movement of transport and human...

-Newsclick.in The poor need food and money, not more loans. Only demand-side interventions will revive the economy. The Covid-19 pandemic is an unprecedented crisis that almost all countries are struggling to cope with. Like the rest of the world, India is fighting the spread of the disease and its adverse consequences on the health system and its finances. On the economic front, India was already facing a prolonged slowing down. Even before...

-Down to Earth India imports around 90 per cent of APIs used to make antibiotics, says an expert The Novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has revealed India’s overdependence on China for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) — also known as bulk drugs — defined by the World Health Organization as any substances used in finished pharmaceutical products. India’s pharmaceutical industry is the third-largest in the world in terms of volume. Two-thirds of the total imports...

-Down to Earth National Green Tribunal’s 2019 order asking states to identify, protect and restore water bodies underlines the urgency to save them The nationwide lockdown imposed to break the spread of the Novel Coronavirus disease spread in India brought into light a new, pleasant discovery — improvement in quality of several water bodies and their catchments as a host of industrial activities halted. There is a need to restore and create more...