-The Indian Express Innovation in vaccine production can have an impact only if it is accessible to all. Patents and access to life-saving drugs has always been an emotive and contentious issue. The right to healthy life is a moral minimum, and to find a rational basis to deny it is deeply offensive to the idea of life itself. At the same time, pharma corporations and institutions claim patents are a just...
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Second wave wreaking havoc on rural lives. Will it impact rural livelihoods as well?
With the rise in Covid-19 daily new cases and daily new deaths since March this year, media reports (please click here and here) on migrant workers returning back to their native places (i.e. places of origin) from migration destinations (i.e. workplaces likes cities and large industrial towns to where the informal and low skilled workers from the marginalised sections of the society migrate seasonally, and sometimes for a longer duration,...
More »Is COVID-19 test data being fudged in UP? DTE investigates -Vivek Mishra
-Down to Earth With more than 230,000 pending COVID-19 reports, the actual daily caseload of UP can be much higher Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, is in the middle of a COVID-19 maelstrom. Even as thousands are dying or getting infected, the experiences of patients shows that COVID-19 test results are getting delayed and the administration is fudging figures. Down to Earth (DTE) analysed the government’s data related to the daily sample...
More »As deaths rise, fear of COVID haunts rural UP -Omar Rashid
-The Hindu While officially numbers have fallen, several cases of undiagnosed illness and deaths are reported across districts Unnao: As per official figures, the number of daily cases of COVID-19 in Uttar Pradesh have started declining. On Tuesday, the State recorded 20,463 new cases and 306 new deaths as against 2.33 lakh samples tested. However, in its villages there is a growing sense of alarm due to a spurt in not only positive...
More »Why Covid is a reality check for Modi’s flagship welfare schemes -Harish Damodaran
-The Indian Express While 10.35 crore PM-JAY Cards have been issued since the launch of ‘the world’s largest health assurance scheme’ in September 2018, it has proved to be of little use in the ongoing Covid-19 epidemic. The Bharatiya Janata Party won 303 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, more than the 282 it got in 2014. This return to power with a larger majority was significantly enabled by the various...
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