-The Hindu Lockdowns need to be guided by trade-offs between harsh and mild policies Data show that as of now 26.2% of the world population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Of them, only 1% live in low-income countries. By contrast, the richer nations, such as the U.S., Canada, Germany and Britain, registered above 50% vaccination by July 17. For India, the percentage of the adult population that...

-IndiaSpend.com Laws governing schools should be easy enough for students to make sense of them. As states prepare to reform education laws under the National Education Policy, our analysis shows that most states’ education laws are verbose, restrictive and incomprehensible even to college graduates New Delhi: On April 8, 2021, union education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal launched the 'Students' and Teachers' Holistic Advancement through Quality Education' (Sarthaq) plan as the first step toward...

-Down to Earth A behind-the-scenes look helps one know that human as well as economic costs need to be paid upfront to make either solar grade silicon or put together a million lithium batteries A recent analysis performed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration shows that it is a business-as-usual scenario. The global average temperature has been 1.02 degrees Celsius (°C) higher than the baseline. The World Meteorological Organization has announced the...

-The Hindu Move after meeting with manufacturers A day after fertilizer producers announced a sharp 46% to 58.33% hike in prices citing higher raw Material Costs, the Central government intervened on Friday to ensure a rollback even though fertilizer prices are no longer regulated. Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers Mansukh Mandaviya said prices would remain unchanged for now, after a ‘high-level’ meeting was held with the major fertilizer companies. Opposition parties had...

Often exports made by a country to the rest of the world are seen in a positive light by us. It is because exports not only earn precious foreign currencies (that can be used for importing goods and services or simply be used for building forex reserves), it also helps in generating effective demand for goods and services produced in that country and hence, contributes to economic or GDP growth....