In the month of April this year, there has been an unprecedented upsurge in daily new cases and daily new deaths in the country due to Covid-19. States, which reported large increases in daily new cases and daily new deaths, are Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, to name but a few.   Data accessed from https://www.covid19india.org/, which is a crowdsourced platform and an independent aggregator of daily Covid-19 figures and...

-Science.thewire.in Dear Dr Harsh Vardhan,  The ongoing second wave of COVID-19 in India with over 3.32 lakh new cases counted in the last 24 hours is extremely concerning and demands imperative and urgent action. This is necessary in the immediate term as well as through longer term preparedness to mitigate the current medical and humanitarian crisis and to prevent its further escalation. We, concerned public health practitioners urgently request the Government of India...

When a massive sum of public money is spent on a programme like Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGNREGA)--a demand-driven programme, there is likelihood of financial misappropriations and mismanagement. Thankfully there are checks and balances in the rural employment guarantee legislation to counter such malpractices. It is worth noting that the total allocation under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGNREGA) for 2020-21 was Rs. 1,11,500.00 crore (R.E.), up...

-The Telegraph Gandhi’s first satyagraha for the cause of farmers stands in sharp contrast to the passage of the three farm laws today Mahatma Gandhi’s first satyagraha in India was launched in Champaran in 1917 to save farmers from the exploitation of British indigo planters — the corporates of that era engaged in contract farming. The protest bears close resemblance to the farmers’ agitation against the three farm laws that were framed...

-PTI/ The Hindu The RBI is targeting to roll out the e-Integrated Ombudsman Scheme in June 2021 The Reserve Bank on Friday announced it will be integrating consumer Grievances redressal under a single ombudsman as against three schemes working at present. There are dedicated ombudsman schemes devoted to consumer grievance redressal in banking, non-bank finance companies and digital transactions, respectively, at present. “To make the alternate dispute redress mechanism simpler and more responsive to...