-Down to Earth Lower caste communities are ostracised and denied access to rehabilitation facilities during natural disasters The malpractices of untouchability and caste-based discrimination, although banned in India, continues unabated in several districts of Odisha. During a natural calamity, they turn into a greater menace as the ostracised people are denied access to rehabilitation facilities. Dalit communities Keuta, Kandara and Siara in Puri district, who sell fish to survive, suffered a major financial...

-Down to Earth A shift in lifestyles, COVID-19 pandemic has changed the game for Aminabad’s locksmiths. Most say they do not want their children to get into this occupation &NBSp; Samir Khan sits cross-legged on the side of street in Amindabad — one of the oldest neighbourhoods of Lucknow — with a heap of unfinished keys, a file and a small hammer. There is a police station on the opposite side. He...

-Counterview.net On August 18, 2021, a petition regarding delay in appointment of information commissioners under the RTI Act was heard by the Supreme Court. The bench of Justices S. Abdul Nazeer and Krishna Murari heard the matter. During the hearing, it was pointed out that despite the judgment of the SC, the Union of India and several states had failed to fill the vacancies in the information commission leading to a...

-The Hindu 52 days after it was announced as a top relief package, Finance Minister says it ‘is in the process’. A Rs.60,000-crore loan guarantee scheme for helping sectors hit the hardest by COVID-19 is yet to get off the ground, 52 days after it figured at the top of an economic relief package to cope with the second wave’s shocks. This proposed credit support was part of a new ₹1.1 lakh crore...

-Hindustan Times He was delivering the inaugural Manoj Srivastava memorial lecture. Manoj Srivastava, a senior IAS officer and a widely acclaimed academic, passed away last year. Nobel laureate Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee on Thursday said the biggest worry due to a Covid-19 pandemic is the widening gap of inequality in education, as online learning exposure as well as Internet penetration continue to be extremely low, more so in a state like Bihar. He was...