-Down to Earth Procurement at the doorstep, direct income support and reaching out to farmers can help in easing farming operations at this crucial time The extension of the Nationwide Lockdown to combat the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), though necessary, will lead to a further suspension of work and no wages and means for families to support themselves. The activities in manufacturing and services, that provide non-essentials, may be suspended, though with serious...

-The Indian Express According to sources, the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd (NAFED), which comes under administrative control of the Agriculture Ministry, has been tasked with ensuring supply of pulses from the buffer stocks it maintains. Announced as part of the COVID-19 relief package about a month ago, free pulses — 1 kg per family — to beneficiaries of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) are yet to reach...

-The Telegraph The pandemic has given surveillance tools legitimacy in the eyes of civil society which at other times might have been more concerned about privacy issues Among the “seven” to-dos that Prime Minister Narendra Modi listed for the country on April 13 while announcing the extension of a Nationwide Lockdown was a call for citizens to download the ‘Aarogya Setu’ app. It would help “prevent the spread of [the] corona infection,”...

-Firstpost.com Marine fisherfolk of Odisha foresee a miserable life ahead despite fishery activities being exempted from the purviews of the Nationwide Lockdown in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak, which has been declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO). "Fishermen of the coastal villages are living a miserable life. And, with no opportunities to earn, either from fishing or daily labour, marine fishing community in Odisha is bound to face...

-NDTV In a separate letter to Kerala, the home ministry has strongly objected to its move to restart restaurants, book shops and barber shops in parts of the state from today. New Delhi: The government has made it clear that states and union territories cannot "dilute" its guidelines on the Nationwide Lockdown to control the spread of coronavirus and said states cannot allow their own activities during this period; they can be...