-The Hindu There is rock solid scientific evidence to demand the cancellation of many upcoming and approved hydel projects In normal circumstances, when a mistake is understood and suffered, one tends to learn from it and not repeat it. Unfortunately, this does not hold true in the case of the policy makers who are bent upon permitting projects and large-scale infrastructure in the already fragile and vulnerable Ganga-Himalayan basin. Recurrent disasters in...

-TheNewsMinute.com According to data from the Civil Registration System (CRS) in Kerala, accessed by TNM, between January 1 and May 31 this year, Kerala has officially registered 1.13 lakh deaths. The number of excess deaths recorded by the Civil Registration System shows that Kerala has recorded excess deaths in 2021, when compared to pre-pandemic years between 2015-2019. As per data accessed by TNM, Kerala has registered around 14,000 excess deaths due to...

-Counterview.net A civil society statement, prepared for endorsement from workers’ organisations and concerned citizens by senior economists Amit Basole, Babu Mathews, Gautam Bhan, Jean Dreze, Rajendran Narayan and Ravi Srivastava after several rounds of discussion with trade unions, lawyers and grassroots organisation, has insisted that the Government of India come up with a national relief and recovery package immediately. “Without the direct support of such a package, simply unlocking the economy will...

-The Hindu The pandemic has highlighted the importance of expanding social security nets Pinki is a 28-year-old Dalit woman from Saharanpur, U.P. Her husband met with an accident during the national lockdown in April 2020. The two of them had to sell all their belongings for his treatment and subsequently became dependent on her parents. Such avoidable miseries were heaped on millions due to the unilateral national lockdown in 2020. The monthly...

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...