KEY TRENDS  • Research studies indicate more erratic and intense monsoon rains/unseasonal rains and hailstorm, increasing risk of droughts and floods and rise in temperature including increased frequency of warm days. This leads to projected average reduction of yield by 6 percent in wheat, 4-6 percent in rice, 18 percent in maize, 2.5 percent in sorghum, 2 percent in mustard and 2.5 percent in potato. The crop yield were projected more...

KEY TRENDS   • During 2014-15, while procurement of foodgrains (rice and wheat) increased from 56.9 million tonnes to 60.2 million tonnes, offtake of foodgrains (rice and wheat) from the PDS decreased from 59.8 million tonnes to 55.9 million tonnes. Despite increased availability in the PDS and prevalence of high inflation in foodgrains, dependence on the PDS is reducing, suggesting that there may be issues of availability, timely availability and quality of the PDS foodgrains...

  Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)  In order to address the problems of poverty, inequality and climate change, world leaders gathered at the United Nations in New York on 25 September, 2015 to adopt the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. As per the United Nations Development Programme  India website (please click here to access), the 2030 Agenda that comprises 17  new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), is expected to guide policy and funding for the next 15...

-The Hindu India now accounts for highest number of increase in cases globally. The government’s focus should be to prevent deaths from COVID-19 and no longer on containing the infection, says a statement jointly issued by the Indian Public Health Association (IPHA), the Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine and the Indian Association of Epidemiologists. India now accounts for the highest number of increase in cases globally. Lockdowns have outlived their utility in...

-The Indian Express What makes the elderly especially vulnerable to the virus? James Diaz, a professor at Louisiana State University’s School of Public Health, has hypothesised that the reason could lie in the victims’ medications. Across the world, the novel coronavirus has killed elderly people the most, especially those with pre-existing medical conditions such as heart disease. According to the US Centre for Disease Control (CDC), the fatality rate from COVID-19 is...