These days a lot many articles, reports, documents, etc. are appearing in the public domain on Coronavirus infection and related issues. An attempt has been made in the present news alert to put together in one place some of the best articles, reports, blogs, webinars, podcasts, etc., which can be useful for our readers. We have divided the resources under various themes for the convenience of our readers and social media...

-Society for Social and Economic Research The sudden announcement of a national lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19 has resulted in a severe disruption of food supply chains. The lockdown was announced without any preparation, and nothing was mentioned about excluding agricultural production and marketing operations from the purview of the lockdown when the Prime Minister first announced these restrictions. Once the lockdown was announced, governments scrambled to keep the...

-Down to Earth Current industrial agriculture models drive habitat loss, create conditions for viruses to emerge and spread The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has exposed a crisis in the global food system, the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food) — a panel of developmental economists, agronomists, nutritionists and sociologists from 18 countries — said in April 2020. The vulnerability of food systems to climate and disease-related disruptions was clear long...

-The Hindu Disruptions in the supply chain and panic buying can lead to price spikes: Hans Timmer In a report released this month, the World Bank has predicted a ‘dire’ situation for South Asia due to the economic impact of measures to counter the novel coronavirus pandemic, suggesting that the eight SAARC countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Maldives and Sri Lanka) will experience their worst economic performance in 40 years,...

-The Indian Express Amartya Sen, Raghuram Rajan, Abhijit Banerjee write: As it becomes clear that the lockdown will go on for quite a while, the biggest worry right now, by far, is that a huge number of people will be pushed into dire poverty or even starvation by the combination of the loss of their livelihoods and interruptions in the standard delivery mechanisms. We in India worry a lot about the possible...