-Newsclick.in On Saturday, the Ministry of Rural Development denied that the rural jobs scheme was facing a shortage of funds. Its response, however, “leaves many questions unanswered,” according to civil society members. Activists have questioned the Centre’s response to media reports on the shortage of available funds for the rural employment guarantee scheme in the current financial year, by alleging that it is “misleading” and that it leaves many raised questions “unanswered.” Last...

-Hindustan Times Additional railway rakes, or train wagons, were being made available to ship fertilisers on a priority basis and at short notice, an official said. The Union government has formed a “crack team” to ensure priority movement of fertilisers to key food-bowl states as fears of shortage have triggered panic buying of crop nutrients, people familiar with the matter said. For the first time, a hub-and-spoke model is being implemented to take...

-Newslaundry.com Vaishnavi Rathore of digital magazine Bastian also won the award for reporting on environmental and development issues. Dainik Bhaskar won the Prem Bhatia Awards for outstanding political reporting for this year, for their coverage of under-reporting of Covid deaths across the country, as per a press release shared by the daily’s journalist. The award was given to the Dainik Bhaskar team of reporters for their coverage of the underreporting of Covid deaths...

-TheWire.in A survey carried out in Jaipur's Kathputli Nagar Basti and Hathroi areas has revealed that several children completely forgot what they had learnt before the lockdown was imposed due to COVID-19. India has experienced one of the longest school closures in the world, an average of 69 weeks across states, leaving millions of school children without any support. Since then, all discussions and debates around the opening of schools have remained...

-Article-14.com The government has rubbished the 2021 Global Hunger Index report saying it does not reflect reality. But the reality is worse because it reflects India’s own pre-Covid data. Current estimates of foodgrain to various welfare programmes reveal serious under-nutrition and wide gaps in safety nets for poor. Mumbai: Jolted by the overnight choking of all sources of income for her household with the imposition of a nationwide lockdown on 23 March...