-Down to Earth Groundwater contaminated with arsenic is extensively used for irrigation and finds its way into the food chain  Arsenic contamination in groundwater has been a growing concern in several parts of the country. Now, the chemical has found its way into the food chain — mainly rice, wheat and potato — a recent study has found. Ashok Kr Ghosh, one of the leading scientists of the team that led the research...

-The Hindu Unless policy action ensures higher demand and growth, India will continue on the path of a K-shaped recovery In recent times, right-leaning economists have been arguing that the Government does not need to do anything with the economy and that it will revive by itself. They call those who disagree with them, doomsday merchants. These economists reason that, like after the Great Depression, the economy rebounded worldwide, and so will...

-The Hindu Underestimation is likely as the CRS is still an imperfect system, with potential sources of error Over the last month, Indian journalists from across the country have accessed and reported on State-level all-cause mortality from the Civil Registration System (CRS), currently confidential and closed to the public. While India’s official death toll from COVID-19 has been suspect from the very beginning — for reasons that are partly institutional and partly...

-Down to Earth There is scientific consensus that rapid and deep cuts to emissions in this decade, and not later, will avoid scenarios of uncontrollable warming and high mitigation costs later this century Most countries have set a target timeline — 2030 is the commonly chosen horizon — to achieve the goals outlined in their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) to the Paris Agreement, 2015. The Paris Agreement is the international treaty to help...

-The Hindu The U.S. push for a global minimum corporate tax may help India, but it can also cause international disagreements The Pillar Two proposal was the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) plan to plug the remaining Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) issues and provide jurisdictions the right to “tax back” where other jurisdictions have either not exercised their primary taxing right or have exercised it at low levels...