-The Hindu In the pandemic, there aren’t enough buyers and government procurement is delayed For the second year running, forest dwellers across Odisha have been deprived of the right price for the Non-Timber Forest Produce (NTFP) gathered by them. With the COVID-19 pandemic disrupting local economies across the country, the NTFP market in Odisha has also suffered due to the absence of adequate buyers this year. “Last year, when the COVID-19 pandemic surfaced, forest...

-The New Indian Express Looking after goats and backyard poultry, the trained women provide veterinary support in rural areas and become financially independent, by Mukesh Ranjan JHARKHAND: Domestic animals are a source of income in rural areas. But there aren't many vets in remote villages of Jharkhand. Meet Putul Tigga - 'Doctor Didi' for villagers in her Hochar village near the Jharkhand capital’s Ratu block - who looks after their goats and...

-The Hindu How the people of Landour with the help of friends raised money for medical equipment at the Landour Community Hospital — all in a day Five days ago, Priya Kapoor, the editorial director of Roli Books, tweeted out to say that the Landour Community Hospital (LCH), an 80-year-old institution, was fundraising for a ventilator. She appealed especially to those who had “visited and loved Landour”, saying, “Every bit counts.” Landour...

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...

The National Food Security Act 2013 guarantees maternity benefit to the tune of Rs. 6,000/- per child by the Central Government for pregnant women and lactating mothers, barring those who are already availing such benefits while being in regular employment with the Central Government or State Governments or Public Sector Undertakings or under other laws. The NFSA 2013 also legally guarantees free meals for every pregnant woman and lactating mother...