-Press release by World Health Organisation, dated 6th May, 2021 * Initial 11 members are distinguished experts in economics, health, government, finance and development from around the world. * Council’s focus is on new strategies to shape economies and financial systems with the objective of building healthy societies that are just, inclusive, equitable and sustainable. It will incorporate lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic. * Council will hold its first meeting on 6...

In the month of April this year, there has been an unprecedented upsurge in daily new cases and daily new deaths in the country due to Covid-19. States, which reported large increases in daily new cases and daily new deaths, are Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, to name but a few.   Data accessed from https://www.covid19india.org/, which is a crowdsourced platform and an independent aggregator of daily Covid-19 figures and...

-Business Standard This was mainly on account of migrants again returning to their homes due to the second wave of Covid-19 and several cities going into lockdowns Around 27.3 million households demanded work under MGNREGA in April 2021, among the highest for the month in recent times. This comes as migrants once again returned to their homes due to the second wave of Covid-19 and several cities went into lockdowns. The high work demand...

-NDTV.com As the Delhi government said it had logged a record 32,000 cases in a single day yesterday, the High Court also raised questions on the Centre's distribution policy on oxygen and vaccines. New Delhi: Taking up allegations of oxygen shortage and discrimination in resources leaving Delhi hamstrung in its Covid fight, the High Court said today if medicines were not being sent to places that really needed them, "blood is on...

-The Indian Express Is the government postponing the use of the Rs 35,000-crore allocated for vaccine development in the current Budget? Has it been shy in using its good offices with the US to intercede on behalf of the country’s vaccine manufacturing companies? This time, last year, India was under a lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a televised address during which he issued several messages of caution. He talked...