-The Indian Express Industries can start production fearlessly in allowed areas taking adequate precautions: Javadekar The government has withdrawn the clause allowing filing of an FIR against a company and its management if an employee tests positive for COVID-19, following concerns raised by India Inc. Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar maintained on Thursday that there was no government directive “for an FIR against a factory.” “There is no mention of sole responsibility fixed...

-Newslaundry.com Media employees are under pressure on the frontlines, often without protective gear or enough support from their employers. As cases of the novel coronavirus began appearing in Dharavi — where some 8.5 lakh people reside on a patch of land measuring 2.4 sq km — news channels and photographers from Mumbai scrambled to capture stories of the chaos and the challenge of preventing transmission in Asia's largest slum. Please click here to...

-TheWire.in Ranabir Samaddar, director of the Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, speaks about the factors behind the migrants’ desperation to reach home and the dynamics of the visibility and invisibility of migrant labour. With the abrupt imposition of the lockdown aimed at arresting the spread of the novel coronavirus, and prospects of earning a livelihood in cities and urban areas drying up, India stood witness to a mass exodus of migrant workers at...

-The Telegraph The pandemic has given surveillance tools legitimacy in the eyes of civil society which at other times might have been more concerned about privacy issues Among the “seven” to-dos that Prime Minister Narendra Modi listed for the country on April 13 while announcing the extension of a nationwide lockdown was a call for citizens to download the ‘Aarogya Setu’ app. It would help “prevent the spread of [the] corona infection,”...

-Livemint.com * India’s cattle are on an enforced diet, milk’s value is on the slide and chicken farmers are in deep despair * The livestock sector contributes 30% to India’s agricultural GDP and is valued at over ₹9 trillion. Yet, during the lockdown, policy and remedial interventions have largely focused on crops NEW DELHI: Shravan Kumar Yadav often wakes up in the middle of the night these days. The incessant mooing and grunting...