-The Telegraph Centre’s revised policy has more than doubled the population of potential beneficiaries without immediate provisions for the extra doses needed India is likely to face extreme shortages of Covid-19 vaccines if all adults eligible for vaccination begin queuing up for the jabs from May 1, health and industry experts have said. The Centre’s revised vaccination policy has more than doubled the population of potential vaccine beneficiaries without immediate provisions for the...

-The Hindu Lender sees ‘considerable downside risk’ from latest COVID wave, says may revise forecast in July The Asian Development Bank has raised its forecast for India’s growth in 2021-22 to 11%, from 8% earlier, even as it warned that failure to control the resurgence of COVID-19 cases including April’s exponential jump poses a “considerable downside risk to the recovery”. ‘Targeted containment’ In its assessment based on end-March data, the ADB cited this year’s...

-The Indian Express The pandemic has forced us to rethink how we live our lives. We must also allow it to dismantle our exam-centric education system that only creates hyper-competitiveness and perpetuates inequalities. With the aggressive return of COVID-19, we are experiencing heightened anxiety. And amid this turmoil, we are also witnessing the breakdown of “normalcy” in our education system. As board exams get cancelled or postponed around the country, students, parents...

-The Telegraph Many hospitals in Lucknow and other parts of the state had put up notices declaring an oxygen shortage and advising families to shift patients elsewhere Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has sent out a clear message to the state’s hospitals: keep your mouth shut about any oxygen crisis or face action. At an online meeting on Sunday evening, Adityanath asked senior administrative and police officers, including divisional commissioners and inspectors-general, to crack...

-The Hindu Many countries are sending emergency use equipment to India to fight COVID-19 Around 15 countries including the US, Russia, France and the United Kingdom are rushing critical emergency use equipment to enable India counter the COVID-19’s deadly second wave. A compilation from the Ministry of External Affairs showed that countries are sending hundreds of oxygen concentrators, respirators and large quantities of liquid oxygen to help ease the difficult situation facing...