-Down to Earth The focus must be on safeguarding women and girls’ reproductive health. Smaller families can be achieved by ensuring gender equality, empowering women The law proposed by the Uttar Pradesh Law Commission on July 7, 2021 on two-child policy compels couples to LIMit their families through a series of incentives and disincentives. There is no evidence, however, that coercive policies can truly reduce fertility. Two-child policies are known to disproportionately impact...

-Down to Earth Aggressive sugarcane farming contaminates land, water The Union government intends to increase the amount of ethanol in the energy mix to lower the country’s dependence on imported oil and carbon footprint, as well as stabilise petrol prices.  India currently blends about 8.5 per cent ethanol in petrol. The government is targeting a 10 per cent ethanol blend by 2022 and a 20 per cent blend (E20) by 2025. E20 can save...

-The Hindu The Indian government has assured COVID-19 vaccines will be provided for all by December 2021. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has downgraded its India growth forecast for this year to 10% on Tuesday, from 11% projected in April, citing the second wave restrictions across States and expects most of India’s population to be vaccinated by 2022-23. The Indian government has assured COVID-19 vaccines will be provided for all by December 2021,...

-Newsclick.in A new ecological social contract may emerge if the Save Buxwaha Forest movement attains its objectives. They say diamonds are forever. So is the ecological damage diamond mines cause, say environmental activists protesting against the proposed diamond mine in Madhya Pradesh’s Buxwaha forest. Blood or Conflict Diamonds is a term used for organised crime networks in African countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, Congo, Angola etc, where the money from diamond...

-IANS/ The New Indian Express The Pegasus Project, a consortium of international news organisations, believes the leaked data is indicative of potential targets identified in advance of possible surveillance attempts. NEW DELHI: The Pegasus snoop list has 40 Indian journalists and forensic tests confirm presence of Pegasus spyware on some devices, The Wire reported. Those on leaked list of potential targets include journalists at Hindustan Times, The Hindu, The Wire, Indian Express,...