-The Hindu India needs a top statistician to frame data-based policies for welfare and development In Poverty and Famines (1981), Amartya Sen argued that poor distribution of food, wartime inflation, speculative buying and panic hoarding were important reasons for the devastating Bengal famine of 1943, while Madhusree Mukerjee, in her 2010 book, Churchill’s Secret War, wrote of the role of British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, his wartime Cabinet’s decisions and “denial policy”...

-Livemint.com Over the past decade, China has strengthened its economic and military ties with India’s neighbours in South ASIa, which could pose a challenge for India As India battles China, trouble in another part of India’s northern neighbourhood has flared up. Nepalese Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli has accused India of hatching a conspiracy to topple him for publishing the country’s new map that depicts disputed territories as parts of Nepal. Even as...

-Down to Earth Over 90% of electronic waste management is done by informal sector workers, most of whom are unaware of their rights   Structured management of electronic waste (e-waste) in India is nascent and is mandated under the E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2016. Some of the salient features of the rules include e-waste classification, extended producer responsibility (EPR), collection targets (EPR) and restrictions on import of e-waste containing hazardous materials. E-waste is categorised...

-TheWire.in Food supply shortages, if any, are driven by state level policy making, rather than consumers’ and suppliers’ fears of contracting COVID-19. In mid-April, the supply of fruits and vegetables at Azadpur mandi, ASIa’s largest fruit and vegetable market, had fallen about 50% since the start of India’s nationwide lockdown. Two months later, updated nationwide data shows that India’s food supply chain appears to have recovered, operating at levels comparable to the same...

-Mongabay.com * A recent report on climate change by the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that nearly 38 percent of the world’s population is vulnerable to the rise in sea level. * COVID-19 has shown that if push comes to shove, countries do take extreme measures to save lives and livelihoods, and thus answer to what can be done to tackle climate change lies in changing our approach to both...