-The Hindu Over the last few decades, intellectual property rules have served as a lethal barrier to the right to access healthcare Even an unprecedented pandemic can do little, it appears, to upset the existing global regime governing monopoly rights over the production and distribution of life-saving drugs. If anything, since the onset of COVID-19, we’ve only seen a reaffirmation of intellectual property rules that have served as a lethal barrier to...

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...

-Down to Earth Sumna is an uninhabited place, with only border roads personnel working there; no word yet on casualties A glacier burst at a remote place on the Indo-China border in Uttarkhand on the afternoon of April 23, 2021, according to a senior official. There is no word yet of any casualties. “A glacier has burst near Uttarakhand’s Joshimath on the India-China border,” Colonel Manish Kapil, commander, Border Road Task Force, was...

-The Indian Express Records show, the demand for medical oxygen has increased by 18 per cent over the last six days across 12 states, which account for 83 per cent of active cases in the country. With four of the states worst hit by Covid battling a critical shortfall between demand and supply of oxygen in their hospitals, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told officials during a high-level meeting Thursday to ramp up...

-Livemint.com * In a day, 5,616 patients were cured of the disease in the state, and the recovery rate stands at 89.23% * West Bengal now has 63,496 active cases West Bengal registered its highest single-day spike of 10,784 fresh Covid-19 cases, which took the tally in the state to 6,88,956, the health department said today. The death toll also rose to 10,710 after 58 fresh fatalities were reported. In a day, 5,616 patients were...