-The Hindu In videoconference addressing District Magistrates from 54 districts across 10 States, he said mutations had raised concerns for youth and children. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that empathy and resoluteness in the face of COVID-19 was essential while also flagging that mutations of the coronavirus had raised concerns for youth and children going ahead. Addressing a videoconference of District Magistrates from 54 districts across 10 States with Chief Ministers...

-Scroll.in As lockdowns get extended in cities, the working-class is back to cutting down on food. This time, there are no community kitchens to fall back on. Sanju Devi stood wearily, clutching a cloth bag outside a ration shop. It had been a month since Delhi had gone under lockdown to contain a deadly surge of coronavirus cases and over three weeks since the prime minister had announced extra foodgrains for two...

-The Pioneer The severe wave of the killer pandemic has virtually nullified all the good work undertaken by the Yogi Adityanath Government After a month of devastation Covid-19 has caused in Uttar Pradesh leaving behind a trail of deaths and stories of agony emanating from almost each mohulla across the State, the insiders in the BJP and in the RSS realise that whatever be their achievements like providing houses to poor or...

-The Hindu The universalisation of social security remains an unfulfilled aspiration in the new code on social security As COVID-19 destroys lives and livelihoods, an unprepared government has rendered low-paid, informal workers, who constitute 91% of the workforce, totally hapless, pushing them further into poverty. Imagine if these same informal workers had social security (including free basic curative care in public clinics and hospitals, the elderly had old age pensions, the dying...

-The Hindu States, especially in the north, are facing the brunt of the second wave, made worse by their poor health infrastructure When the first wave of the novel coronavirus pandemic hit the country, the central government imposed the strictest lockdown for almost two months. For most of the migrants stuck in urban areas without incomes, jobs and food to survive, the only escape was to walk back to the rural areas...