-TheWire.in/ The Reporters' Collective * Excess deaths in Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh were over 12-times the corresponding official COVID-19 death toll until early January 2022. * Data from across the country suggests governments are undercounting COVID-19 deaths by the lakhs, possibly to avoid the charge of epidemic mismanagement. * As a result, facilitated by disparate protocols, poor record-keeping and red-tape, thousands of families haven’t received the compensation they are due. Last year, just as...

-The Hindu It is astonishing that public expenditure data on the education sector are not easily available In the current Budget session, how much money the Central and State Governments will allocate to education and for what purpose should be a matter of public concern and debate. Even before the pandemic, public spending on education in most States was below that of other middle-income countries. Most major States spent in the range...

-The Telegraph The apex court acted after some states rejected monetary claims by thousands of families that had lost members to the pandemic The Supreme Court on Wednesday chastised the states for rejecting the monetary claims by thousands of families that had lost members to Covid and ordered the governments to directly reach out to orphaned children with financial succour. The court said no application for ex gratia should be rejected outright on...

-IANS/ Business Standard The Centre on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that due to "comprehensive policies and steps" taken by both Central and State Governments, there have been no starvation deaths in recent times The Centre on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that due to "comprehensive policies and steps" taken by both Central and State Governments, there have been no starvation deaths in recent times, even during the Covid pandemic, but the...

-The Hindu Six of them have written to Centre opposing any such move. The Union government is planning to acquire for itself overriding powers to transfer IAS and IPS officers through Central deputation, doing away with the requirement of taking the approval of the State Governments. The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) wrote to the States on January 12 that the Union government proposes to amend Rule 6 (deputation of cadre officers)...