A recent report by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) states that the countrywide lockdown imposed on 25th March, 2020, which was extended for nearly two months in phases, affected the food and nutritional status of vulnerable sections of the Indian population. It says that a programme like the Mid-Day Meal Scheme covers four-fifth of primary-school-aged children in the country that helps in improving not only nutrition but also...

-The Hindu The committee constituted by Home Ministry on reforms to the IPC may propose a separate Section A panel constituted by the Union Home Ministry to suggest reforms to the British-era Indian Penal Code (IPC) is likely to propose a separate Section on “offences relating to speech and expression.” As there is no clear definition of what constitutes a “hate speech” in the IPC, the Committee for Reforms in Criminal Laws is...

-Scroll.in Several reports showed Covid-19 patients in Mewla Gopalgarh village lying under a neem tree as they struggled to find hospital beds. The police in Uttar Pradesh have filed a first information report against the former head of a village for allegedly giving false statements to the media about the coronavirus and spreading rumours to tarnish the government’s image, The Times of India reported on Wednesday. The Times of India and The Wire...

-The Hindu Over 4,500 fatalities do not find mention in the Delhi government records. Over 4,500 people, who lost their lives in the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, have slipped through the cracks of Delhi government death records over the last 24 days. A dovetailing of funerals with government death toll statistics between April 18 and May 11 throws up a cumulative discrepancy of 4,783; the figures varied every day with the...

-The Hindu U.P. govt. ill-prepared to deal with spread of infections in rural areas, says Allahabad High Court The Election Commission, the higher courts and the government failed to fathom the disastrous consequences of permitting the elections in a few States and the Panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh, the Allahabad High Court has noted. The Uttar Pradesh government is having tough time in controlling the spread of COVID-19 in urban areas and it...