-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...

-The Telegraph Many hospitals in Lucknow and other parts of the state had put up notices declaring an oxygen shortage and advising families to shift patients elsewhere Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has sent out a clear message to the state’s hospitals: keep your mouth shut about any oxygen crisis or face action. At an online meeting on Sunday evening, Adityanath asked senior administrative and police officers, including divisional commissioners and inspectors-general, to crack...

-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 Telegraph The Centre had last November announced a Rs 900-crore project but none of this money went to either Covishield or Covaxin India’s shortage of Covid-19 vaccines that precludes immediate inoculation for all adults is rooted in the Narendra Modi government’s lack of funding for key vaccines under development and evaluation, experts have said. The experts, who have tracked global vaccine efforts, said the Indian government’s lack of investments contrasted with the...

-Down to Earth Destruction of date palm trees during cyclone Amphan and warming weather have resulted in a huge decline in production of West Bengal’s trademark nolen gur It is safe to assume that anyone coming from Jaynagar would be carrying nolen gur (date palm jaggery), goes a proverb in West Bengal. The locality in South 24 Parganas district is known for its sweets since pre-Independence days. Jaynagar moa, a sweet made...