-Article-14.com In the sprawling rural hinterland beyond the Taj Mahal, in a region dotted with hospitals, we found a deluge of unreported and unrecorded sickness and death, because the administration of chief minister Yogi Adityanath discourages record keeping, restricts testing and insists the pandemic is under control. Agra (Uttar Pradesh): In normal times, only a few bodies were cremated every week at the Poiya Ghat crematorium in rural Agra, 12 km and...

-The Hindu Balram Bhargava says more Rapid Antigen Tests will be conducted from now on. The national COVID-19 positivity rate stood at 21% and 310 of the 734 districts had reported positivity greater than or equal to the national average, Balram Bhargava, Director-General, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), said on Tuesday. At the Health Ministry briefing, Dr. Bhargava said the country now had the RTPCR testing capacity of about 16 lakh a...

-Livemint.com A section of the BJP’s own supporters, and its vocal middle class base appears opposed to the controversial farm laws In 2015, the first Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) central government unveiled an ambitious reform to overhaul India’s land acquisition laws that would have enabled corporations easier access to land across the country. But faced with intense protests from Opposition parties, the changes were rolled back. In 2020, the second Modi-led...

-The Hindu The second wave has amplified the issue of rent which does not draw much attention as food and income support do As State governments have begun implementing weekend curfews and lockdown-like conditions amid the second wave of COVID, there is another issue that is emerging — rent crises within informal rental housing markets. For example, domestic workers in Jaipur, Rajasthan, have begun reporting to the Rajasthan Mahila Kamgar Union (RMKU)...

-Newsclick.in The deeper rot in agriculture can be overcome through more far-reaching reforms, starting from an overhaul of pre-capitalist land relations and relations of production that continue to shackle productivity and are at the root of aggravating poverty, unemployment and inequality in rural India. It has been more than five months since farmers from different parts of the country began protesting in Delhi. They have been unflinching when it comes to their...