--Press release by the National Coalition on the Education Emergency (NCEE) dated January 29, 2022 An education emergency of unprecedented proportions has severely impacted hundreds of millions of children in India. Prolonged school closures have caused learning deprivation, student dropout, increased child labour, malnutrition, and early marriages that are compromising the future of our country. It is time to open schools and massively increase funding of public education with a clear focus...

-Down to Earth Higher MSP, dearer imports expected to keep rates firm for local oilseeds     India looks set for a bumper mustard harvest this rabi season, which raises the question: Will those growing the oilseed reap enough compensation for their effort? Increased supply generally suppresses prices, but experts are optimistic that mustard farmers will duck that trend this time. The country has already achieved its mustard acreage for 2025-26 this rabi...

-TheWire.in/ The Reporters' Collective * Excess deaths in Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh were over 12-times the corresponding official COVID-19 death toll until early January 2022. * Data from across the country suggests governments are undercounting COVID-19 deaths by the lakhs, possibly to avoid the charge of epidemic mismanagement. * As a result, facilitated by disparate protocols, poor record-keeping and red-tape, thousands of families haven’t received the compensation they are due. Last year, just as...

-Down to Earth Unfavourable, unreliable weather hurt agriculture, in turn pushing food prices our of reach across the world At 14.23 per cent, India’s wholesale inflation rate in November 2021 was the highest in three decades. It did reduce marginally to 13.56 per cent the next month, according to Government data released January 14, 2022. But even that is bad news for the Centre ahead of Assembly elections in five states, including...

In the month of January this year, more than 100 homeless persons died (please click here and here to access) in Delhi-NCR due to cold wave like conditions. Although a Delhi-based non-government organisation (NGO) Centre for Holistic Development (CHD) made that claim, and therefore asked the Chief Minister of Delhi to make proper arrangements for the homeless poor during winters, the officials of the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB)...