-The Wire Science During April and May, 2021, Madhya Pradesh saw an astonishing rise in mortality. According to death registration data reported by Rukmini S., during these two months the state saw 1.7 lakh “excess” deaths over and above what would be expected from previous years’ data. In May alone the number of registered deaths was around five times the numbers seen in 2018 and 2019. Shocking as they are, these figures...

-The Telegraph A delay of 57 days would mean variants get eight weeks to circulate unnoticed, says IBAB scientist India has furnished coronavirus genomes from 0.05 per cent of its Covid-19 patients, a tiny FRAction of its own target, scientists have said amid concerns that the signals from even the limited sequencing efforts have not triggered timely interventions to save lives. A study on global sequencing efforts released on Thursday said India had...

-The Hindu Measuring excess deaths is the best possible way to estimate the count of COVID-19 deaths The real time mortality impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is an important statistical measure to guide policy responses. But measuring the actual count is not an easy task. WHO, in January 2021, had estimated, based on excess deaths data in Europe and the American continents, that actual deaths were at least 1.6 times over the...

In his Mann ki Baat address to the nation on 30th May, 2021, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi appreciated the fact that the farmers received "more than the minimum support price (MSP) for mustard" pertaining to the rabi production. One can easily guess from this statement of the PM that the mustard growers in Haryana (and elsewhere) preferred to sell their produce to private traders in the open market instead...

-The Hindu Phase 3 of the e-Courts project can harness technology for service delivery without increasing surveillance risks In popular perception, Indian courts are not associated first with the delivery of justice, but with long delays and difficulties for ordinary litigants. According to data released by the Supreme Court in the June 2020 newsletter of the e-Committee, 3.27 crore cases are pending before Indian courts, of which 85,000 have been pending for...