-The Hindu “This is a George Floyd moment for India’s Citizens, with the refrain – I can’t breathe," the court says. The Delhi High Court on Friday held the Government’s imposition of Goods and Services Tax (GST) on oxygen concentrators imported for personal use as ‘unconstitutional’ and said oxygen concentrators constitute a life-saving device during the COVID-19 pandemic. “This is a George Floyd moment for the Citizens of this country. The refrain is...

-The Hindu Over 4,500 fatalities do not find mention in the Delhi government records. Over 4,500 people, who lost their lives in the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, have slipped through the cracks of Delhi government death records over the last 24 days. A dovetailing of funerals with government death toll statistics between April 18 and May 11 throws up a cumulative discrepancy of 4,783; the figures varied every day with the...

-PTI/ NDTV.com Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged people take precautions against the coronavirus and warned against its spread in rural areas. New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the coronavirus pandemic is rapidly spreading in rural areas, as he urged Citizens to take precautions, wear masks and maintain social distance to check spread disease that has claimed at least 2.6 lakh lives. The government, he said, is working on "war footing"...

-Hindustan Times The Centre and states are at war, but India urgently needs a coordinated response. It’s not too late. But soon it will be In an influential paper published over a decade ago, the economist Lant Pritchett described India as a “flailing State” — in which the head, that is the elite institutions at the national level (and, in some cases, state level) remained sound and functional but was no longer...

India is facing a second and worse wave of Covid-19 pandemic. At this time, the country requires journalism to tell the stories of courage, of loss and grief, of the state of preparedness and about the efforts being made by communities, individuals, civil society and government. Journalists are needed to document with rigour the gaps and lacunae in governance when it appears. At the same time, journalists need to be vigilant about...