-Scroll.in This is an important reminder that policies with a 120 million-person hole at the heart of them are flawed. India’s chaotic attempt to go into a lockdown to combat the coronavirus has had an unusual side-effect: it has the attention of the elites, ensconced in their homes during the THRee-week period, to the plight of the country’s massive migrant labour population. The Central government’s failure to adequately plan forced hundreds of thousands...

-The Hindu While some can practise social distancing, most Indians simply cannot as they have no social security What could possibly have been the reason for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to give only a four-hour notice for the lockdown? If the requirement was to keep the population indoors, strictly enforcing social distancing, how abjectly this has failed! Lakhs of migrant labourers have been jostling to get any form of transport back home;...

-PTI/ The Hindu “While the ITBA platform is not available to the officers for discharging statutory functions, it is still possible to follow up the pending collection matters by contacting large taxpayers telephonically/electronically,” IT Commissioner said. A THRee-month extension in deadlines for tax payment and filing of returns notwithstanding, the Income-Tax Department has asked field formations to contact large taxpayers over phone or email to follow up on pending collections. Rakesh Gupta, Commissioner...

-The Indian Express While Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday underlined that this was the only way to fight COVID-19, the Home Ministry directed states to ensure effective sealing of the borders. As the lockdown that gradually started from last Sunday entered the second week, the government indicated it was not going to deviate from this containment and mitigation strategy against coronavirus, despite initial hiccups THRough the week. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi...

-The Indian Express Ranveer was one among the countless migrant workers walking home from big cities to their villages, where new rules of isolation and quarantine await. And his story is emblematic of their plight, and the trauma of waiting families. Morena (Madhya Pradesh): The audio file is 42 seconds long. On one end is a loud, animated voice. Screaming, beseeching. “Ask someone to give you a lift till Morena. Hello? Hello?”...