-The Hindu The role of planning and social oversight in the economic development of the State needs to expand further Will the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) be re-elected in the upcoming polls in Kerala, or will the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) return to lead the government? The election results will have a major bearing on the path of development that the State would take in the coming years. While Kerala’s achievements...

-The Indian Express In Mumbai, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, in an address to the state, stopped short of announcing a lockdown, but warned that a decision may have to be taken in the next two days after consultations with experts and political leaders. On the day the Centre categorised 11 States/UTs as “States of grave concern” on account of their high and rising daily cases and deaths, several states moved Friday to...

-The Hindu The political emphasis on welfare interventions is insufficient to address the emerging developmental issues in the State A major concern in contemporary Indian development is the widening socio-economic disparity across groups and regions. Even when regions perform relatively better in one developmental dimension, it does not often translate into all round development. For instance, Himachal Pradesh and Kerala might have attained better levels of human development but that has not...

-Hindustan Times The nuns’ congregation belongs to Syro-Malabar Church which is based in Kerala. Thiruvananthapuram: The brief detention of a group of nuns by Government Railway Police (GRP) following complaints of alleged forced conversion by Bajrang Dal activists in Uttar Pradesh’s Jhansi district has generated a political firestorm in Kerala ahead of the crucial assembly elections next month. The nuns’ congregation belongs to Syro-Malabar Church which is based in Kerala. While the Kerala Catholic...

-IndiaSpend.com As researchers caution against declaring India's second COVID-19 wave to be less deadly than the first, we look for clues in excess mortality data from Kerala and Mumbai to shed light on India's comparatively low COVID-19 mortality Chennai: More than one year into the COVID-19 pandemic, India is beginning to take the first steps towards answering a key question--is there something unusual about COVID-19 mortality in India? Mortality is at the...