-Newsclick.in And yet, it is being tom-tommed as ‘freedom’ for farmers and ‘self-reliance’ for country! Silently, and in double quick time, changes in laws related to cultivation, sale, stocking and pricing of agricultural produce – food grain, vegetables, etc. – have been proposed and disposed by the Narendra Modi government. Three ordinances relating to these key dimensions were given Presidential assent late on June 5 night, and they came into force “at...

-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...

-HowIndiaLives.com/ Livemint.com Indian leaders came late to the coronavirus discussion. And when they did, they focused more on health and administration than the economy or the poor On 30 January, India reported its first coronavirus case from Kerala. The virus was not yet a global menace, but even by that day, 20 countries already had a combined 7,823 cases. However, it would not be until over a month later that top political...

-National Herald Dr Anoop Saraya, Head of Gastroenterology and Human Nutrition Unit at AIIMS, said success of any advisory group of scientists depended on a culture of openness, independence and diversity of opinion Slamming the Narendra Modi government for ‘mishandling’ the response to COVID-19, asenior AIIMS doctors, has written in a letter to the editor of Indian Journal of Medical Sciences that there were confusing signals on how to deal with the...

-Livemint.com Consumer confidence indices, an output of RBI survey of 5,300 households spread across 13 cities, fell to a historic low in May. The future expectations index dropped to 97.9 in May from 115.2 in March MUMBAI: As the covid-19 pandemic continues to spread, India’s economy has lost its main engine of growth: consumption. A survey by the country’s central bank shows how stark is the pessimism among Indians. It also gives various...