-Financial Express With the fertility rate falling below replacement, challenges of higher dependency, burgeoning healthcare and social security needs will emerge. India must mount the necessary policy-response The time has come for India to turn a new leaf on population policy. The country’s fertility rate has already fallen below the replacement level, 2, according to the latest data from the National Family Health Survey, which was largely collected before the nation felt...

-The New Indian Express The survey is based on inputs from 3,231 Indians from 24 states ahead of the Union Budget 2022-23 on the expectations of common people from the government. NEW DELHI: More than 80% of Indians support a tax on the rich and corporations who earned record profits during the pandemic, a nationwide survey by Fight Inequality Alliance India (FIA India) revealed on Thursday. Over 90% of participants demanded budget measures...

-TheWire.in Puja Changoiwala’s new novel begins with the announcement of the COVID-19 lockdown. It then makes real a 900-km journey by a migrant family from Mumbai to Balhaar, Rajasthan. The idea of home is a fundamental human concept. We’re not taught about it at school, nor is there a pedagogy of ‘being at home,’ nevertheless, all of us have a sense of belonging that we associate with the word. Even those hunter-gatherers and...

-The Telegraph The state’s expert advisers assert that the earlier lower counts were not deliberate but the outcome of a lack of clear definition of Covid-19 deaths Bangalore: A paradoxical rise in Kerala’s Covid-19 mortality rate despite a shrinking epidemic ahead of omicron’s emergence reflects diligent death auditing under political pressure, public demand and good record-keeping lacking in other states, health experts have said. The auditing efforts had till Monday added over 16,900...

-The Hindu By closing schools for this long and providing just online education, we have violated children’s rights About three weeks ago, we all wished each other a happy 2022. However, that has remained wishful thinking with the Omicron variant of COVID-19 upending our lives. More than Omicron itself, which is more transmissible than Delta but far milder, the response to the variant in terms of the restrictions that have been imposed...