-Hindustan Times “We are trying to calm the peoples’ frayed nerves. The daily sharing of Data is creating panic. People are buying masks and hoarding hand sanitisers,” said Dr Rajan Sharma, IMA president. New Delhi: The Indian Medical Association urged the government on Wednesday not to share novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases daily, arguing the move would lead to panic even though the World Health Organisation declared it a pandemic. “We appeal to...

-The Hindu The absence of playgrounds and electricity in govt. schools speaks poorly of policy priorities It should rank as an irony that as a founder-leader of the International Solar Alliance, India has not yet electrified a significant number of government schools, while extolling the elegance and virtue of photovoltaic electricity to the rest of the world. The lack of power in schools is taken note of by the Parliamentary Standing Committee...

-The Hindu Serious efforts must be made to deter sex selective abortion and infanticide Few things cast a long shadow on human failing as much as sex selection does. To choose on the basis of gender and eliminate new life if the gender is not ‘favourable’ can easily be among humanity’s worst moments. Last week’s case of infanticide in Tamil Nadu’s Usilampatti, historically notorious for its crude methods of killing female babies,...

-The Hindu The latest GDP Data show that there has been an undeniable decline in the growth rate over seven consecutive quarters On February 28, as per its release calendar, the National Statistical Office (NSO) put out the third quarter gross domestic product (GDP) estimates, that is, for October-December 2020. It showed that domestic output grew at 4.7% at constant prices (that is, net of inflation), compared to the same period the...

-The Hindu There is a link between disability, loss of employment and impoverishment in rural India Of the world’s population, 15% live with some form of disability. Are disabilities associated with economic hardships through loss of employment and consequent impoverishment in rural India? For lack of more recent Data (the NSS does not cover disabilities) we tried to answer this question by using the two rounds of the India Human Development Survey...