-Newsclick.in While Covid-19 affected all areas of life, it was access to healthcare where it had the maximum effect. So inpatient admissions, outpatient care or operations saw declines of up to 40%. Declines were also seen in deliveries, antenatal care and immunisation of children. States with a large private health sector also suffered as charges were increased substantially so that profits remained unaffected. So the message is clear–give adequate budgetary allocations...

-The Hindu The Wistron incident is an example of how exploitative labour practices could accompany businesses moving to India Apple’s decision to place its Taiwanese supplier, Wistron Corp., on probation by not giving new orders — after an audit of the serious lapses in labour practices that led to violence in its facility in Narasapura in Karnataka — is a step forward in corporate accountability and ethical business operations. Pressured by Apple’s...

-Newsclick.in Almost every district in Gujarat has a tale of aggressive land grab where farmers have been fighting for their rights against all odds and now they are resisting the farm laws. Bharat Bhill, a farmer from Talaja taluka of Bhavnagar in Gujarat, was informed by his friends on the evening of December 7 that the police were looking to detain him. This was not the first time Bhill would be detained,...

The World Economic Outlook – a bi-annual publication of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) -- released in October 2020 has anticipated that the economic progress made by the countries since the 1990s to reduce poverty would be turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic. On top of that, economic disparity would rise too in the post-COVID world because the crisis has disproportionately impacted women, informal sector workers and people with...

Preliminary findings of a survey among 3,994 respondents from 11 states reveal that most vulnerable households and communities, such as SCs, STs, OBCs, PVTGs, slum dwellers, daily wage labourers, farmers, single women headed households, etc. continue to witness depressed incomes during September-October in comparison to their income levels prior to the lockdown. The face-to-face survey conducted by the Right to Food Campaign and Center for Equity Studies (instead of telephonic...