-Article-14.com As India faces a catastrophic SECond wave and the government is largely prominent by its absence, thousands of ordinary citizens are stepping up to help with information, oxygen, hospital beds, crematoria and even performing last rites, regardless of religion. New Delhi: Ifrah Fatima, 26, an MBBS graduate in Hyderabad was “doomscrolling Twitter” on 18 April, feeling “utterly helpless” about India’s Covid-19 emergency, when an idea struck her. She posted on Instagram,...

-The Indian Express In the last 10 days, from April 18 to April 27, as many as 3,049 died of Covid. And an almost equal number, 3909, died suspected to have had Covid. The harrowing images playing out from cities and towns across the country show mourners lined up outside crematoriums, rows of funeral pyres burning with hardly a break, last-rites arrangements being hurriedly scrambled for the rising number of dead. In the...

-The Hindu Leveraging existing schemes and providing universal social SECurity is of utmost importance India is one of the largest welfare states in the world and yet, with COVID-19 striking in 2020, the state failed to provide for its most vulnerable citizens. The country witnessed multiple crises: mass inter- and intra-migration, food inSECurity, and a crumbling health infrastructure. The extenuating circumstances of the pandemic has pushed an estimated 75 million people into...

-The Hindu Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee, in an observation, said there can’t be adhocism in dealing with a pandemic Chief Justice of the Madras High Court Sanjib Banerjee on Thursday wondered what the Centre was doing for the last 12 to 14 months without anticipating the SECond wave of COVID-19 and getting prepared to face it. Referring to desperate measures being taken when the wave was at its peak now, he said...

-The Hindu Business Line Kerala’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic has been the subject of international conversation about public health systems. Piloting Kerala’s fight against the pandemic is the State’s Health Minister and CPI(M)’s Central Committee member KK Shailaja who speaks exclusively to BusinessLine about the criticality of publicly-run healthcare and how the need of the hour is to nationalise the system. Excerpts: * What are the lessons to be learnt from...