-The Telegraph The Supreme Court Bar Association president described the top court’s decision to hold a hearing on Tuesday as 'astonishing' The Supreme Court is making forays into uncharted territory by staying the implementation of the new farm laws while refusing to freeze the Citizenship Amendment Act and the recent “love jihad” ordinances issued by the governments in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, eminent jurist Dushyant Dave told The Telegraph on Wednesday. “The Supreme...

-Hindustan Times This entails addressing prevailing systemic deficiencies along with managing the added burden of Covid-19. India’s health sector requires a two-fold intervention by the government. The extraordinary situation created by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has exposed the vulnerabilities of our fragile health-care system, demands an equally extraordinary intervention by the government. The expectation from the Union Budget 2021-22 is for the central government to lead from the front in the health...

-The Hindu MANGALURU: Minister for Rural Development and panchayat Raj K.S. Eshwarappa said on Tuesday that the Union government has promised to sanction 50 additional mandays for the State to implement Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme. Speaking to presspersons in Udupi, the Minister said that the Union Minister for Rural Development and panchayat Raj Narendra Singh Tomar at a recent meeting promised to increase mandays from 100 to...

-Down to Earth The number of pandemic-induced new poor is forecast to rise to 143-163 million in 2021 The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, which forced economies around the world to lock down last year, may have increased global poverty by 119 million-124 million, according to updated estimates by World Bank. This includes the 31 million people who would have moved out of poverty (measured at the international poverty line of $1.90, or...

-The Hindu Federalism and good governance need engagement between people and officials, as the MGNREGA programme shows It is 45 days and counting since lakhs of farmers have gathered in Delhi protesting against the farm laws. Leaving aside the merits and demerits of the laws, many are aggrieved about the process of promulgation of the laws as it lacked any consultation with those that the laws are purportedly meant to serve. Very often,...