-The Hindu Business Line The development economist, now part of Tamil Nadu’s Economic Advisory Council, says that public expenditure on health is just 0.6 per cent of the state domestic product, one of the lowest ratios among Indian states * Universal quality education, health care and social security are still distant goals * A well-designed system of emergency cash transfers would be quite useful in this situation of recurrent crises, which may last...

-TheWire.in COVID-19 struck like a bolt from the blue for the residents of Beed, who were already struggling with agrarian crisis, leaving them at the mercy of crumbling public health facilities. “I don’t know what finally caused her death but I know she did not get the attention she deserved.” Subash Kabade says this, describing his sister’s death. The night before his sister, Lata Survase, died in the Civil Hospital in Maharashtra’s Beed...

-CBGAIndia.in India’s response to the pandemic has depended heavily on the exploited labour of women workers, most of them from marginalised backgrounds. These are ASHAs or Accredited Social Health Activists, the cadre of frontline health workers that has been mobilised for everything from door-to-door surveys, distributing medicine kits, measuring oxygen saturation, monitoring containment zones and spreading awareness about vaccines. 70,000 such women recently went on strike in Maharashtra demanding higher pay,...

The rise in COVID-19 daily new cases and daily new deaths compelled many state governments to impose local level lockdowns during April-May 2021. As of 20th April, 2021, partial lockdowns were noticed in 10 states across the country and complete lockdown was imposed in Delhi. As of 8th May, 2021, nearly the entire country was under complete lockdown as a result of either partial lockdowns and night curfews or complete...

-Scroll.in Erendro Leichombam’s father said he had been in detention for 40 days on flimsy charges. The father of Erendro Leichombam, an activist from Manipur, on Monday moved the Supreme Court against his detention under the National Security Act, Bar and Bench reported. Leichombam and journalist Kishorchandra Wangkhem were charged under the stringent Act in May, reportedly for Facebook posts they made after the death of Manipur Bharatiya Janata Party chief Saikhom Tikendra...