-Down to Earth Doctors at Odisha’s Vimsar hospital say if primary healthcare improves, the death toll at bigger hospitals would be fewer The lack of primary healthcare facilities leads to an increase in the number of infant deaths at bigger hospitals, a case study from Odisha shows. Seventeen per cent of the infants (one year-olds) admitted to the Veer Surendra Sai Institute of Medical Science and Research (Vimsar) at Burla in Odisha’s Sambalpur...

-Business Standard Natural farming is an alternative to chemical fertiliser-based and high input cost agriculture After decades of intensive agriculture, farms and farmers are in a crisis, food markets remain distorted, and consumers do not have access to nutritious diets. India needs a shift towards sustainable food systems. Among many alternative farming techniques is natural farming, with the potential to improve sustainability and also meliorate government finances. Natural farming is an alternative to...

-The Indian Express What is Article 131, under which Kerala has moved SC against the CAA? How does this challenge differ from the other petitions filed against the law? What aspects of India’s federal structure does the case throw up? On Tuesday, Kerala became the first state to challenge the Citizenship (Amendment) Act(CAA) before the Supreme Court. However, the legal route adopted by the state is different from the 60 petitions already...

-The Hindu Business Line The PM-Kisan as a tool to prop up sagging rural demand, recording of tenancy to help the real cultivators and streamlining of agricultural subsidies could be three important themes for Indian agriculture in 2020. With the defeat in the Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and chhattisgarh in December 2018, the Government realised that to win rural votes in the General Elections in May 2019, it needed to...

-Hindustan Times Indian democracy is robust. The balance is good for the polity The Jharkhand election, in which a coalition of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-Congress-Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has succeeded in dislodging the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, is a reflection of a broader pattern in national politics. For one, it shows, yet again, that the BJP is vulnerable at the state level — and Narendra Modi’s popularity at the...