-The Tribune Jalandhar: Holding Prime Minister Narendra Modi responsible for spreading the second wave of Covid-19, national vice-president of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) Dr Navjot Dahiya today called him a ‘super spreader’ and blamed him for irresponsibly organising big political rallies in poll-bound states and even allowing Kumbh mela during such a serious situation. “While the medical fraternity is trying hard to make people understand mandatory Covid norms, PM Modi did...

Forest fires are not just confined to countries like the United States of America (California, 2020), Brazil (Amazon forest, 2019-2020) or Australia (2019-20); they happen every year across many states in India too. Media reports suggest that forest fires have taken place in the recent months in Odisha's Simlipal National Park, Uttarakhand and HIMAchal Pradesh, among other states. Forest fires have also been reported this year in Nagaland-Manipur border (Dzukou...

-The Hindu The Matuas became a significant political entity after the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2003, came into being On a sultry April day, Thakurnagar, the holy site of Matuas in the Bongaon sub-division of West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district bordering Bangladesh, sizzles with banners of rival political parties asking for votes. As if indifferent to the ongoing political tension and the pandemic threat, a boisterous religious rally makes its way through...

-Down to Earth The country reported 82,170 VIIRS alerts in the fortnight till April 14; Uttarakhand sees significant jump in number   India recorded 82,170 forest fire alerts from April 1-14, 2021 nearly double the number reported during the same period past year, according to Global Forest Watch (GFW), an open-source monitoring application. The country reported 43,031 alerts during the corresponding fortnight in 2020, according to GFW data using Visible Infrared IMAging Radiometer...

-The Telegraph The Centre had last November announced a Rs 900-crore project but none of this money went to either Covishield or Covaxin India’s shortage of Covid-19 vaccines that precludes immediate inoculation for all adults is rooted in the Narendra Modi government’s lack of funding for key vaccines under development and evaluation, experts have said. The experts, who have tracked global vaccine efforts, said the Indian government’s lack of investments contrasted with the...