-NetworkIdeas.org The NDA government has decided to further tighten its regulation of e-commerce, taking on in particular foreign giants like Amazon and Flipkart-Walmart, with implications for domestic organized retail majors like Reliance. The Department of Consumer Affairs in the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution has called for comments on an amended version of the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020, which it posted on its website in late June...

The rise in COVID-19 daily new cases and daily new deaths compelled many state governments to impose local level lockdowns during April-May 2021. As of 20th April, 2021, partial lockdowns were noticed in 10 states across the country and complete lockdown was imposed in Delhi. As of 8th May, 2021, nearly the entire country was under complete lockdown as a result of either partial lockdowns and night curfews or complete...

-IndiaSpend.com To fight hunger and distress due to the pandemic, India must universalise foodgrain distribution, expand the food basket in its rations scheme and provide cash transfers, activist Anjali Bhardwaj tells us in this interview Bengaluru: The pandemic-induced lockdowns have had a profound impact on livelihoods, affecting poor Indians' food intake, studies show. In October 2020, more than half the respondents of a Hunger Survey said their rice/wheat consumption had declined during...

-Newsclick.in Rice meant for the poor will be sold at subsidised rates to privately-owned ethanol distilleries. The industries will be given cheap loans and exempted from Environmental Clearances. Is the Modi government subsidising the rich at the cost of the poor by diverting foodgrains meant for the most impoverished sections of the population to private industries for producing alcohol for India’s ethanol blended petrol programme? There’s more: For manufacturing ethanol, foodgrains will not...

-Livemint.com Policymakers are flying blind when it comes to designing an effective response to the pandemic As the second wave of covid-19 ebbs in India and policy focus shifts to the economic damage caused by lockdowns for the second consecutive year, economists are finding it hard to assess the extent and spread of the damage. The absence of benchmark survey data in the pre-pandemic period, the abrupt halt to most survey work during...