-Newslaundry.com The local reporters put their lives at risk covering the pandemic, yet they are made to work for meagre wages and without much organisational support. “I tested positive twice and was quarantined for almost 50 days in the past year,” said a stringer working for a Malayalam television channel headquartered in Kerala’s Idukki. “Since I report on the pandemic, my work requires me to be in places where infection levels are...

-ThePrint.in Entrepreneurs on social media have been listing pain points of sustaining businesses in India, noting the many compliances and how digitisation hasn't made processes particularly easy. New Delhi: Multiple compliances, large volume of paperwork and a hostile environment are some of the reasons behind the unease of owning small businesses in India, according to entrepreneurs in the country. Several such entrepreneurs took to social media in the past two days to air...

-The Telegraph At the same time, health officials iterated that people need two doses for full immunisation The Union health ministry on Thursday claimed the Covid-19 vaccines used in India offered nearly the same protective effect against death after the first dose as after the second dose, baffling experts who said the claim contradicted research and observations. At the same time, health officials iterated that people need two doses for full immunisation. An exercise...

-The Telegraph The Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, has topped the education ministry’s ranking under the National Institutional Ranking Framework this year JNU has held on to the second spot in the government’s ranking of universities this year while the Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University have improved their places despite all three facing campus turmoil and government attempts to dilute their character. The Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, has topped the...

-Frontline.thehindu.com The RBI’s proposal to loosen regulations for private lenders in the microfinance space will have disastrous consequences for the poor, especially women in rural areas. Microfinance, a category of financial services aimed at serving people from low-income households who lack access to conventional banking credit and services, was originally designed by international finance capital institutions such as the World Bank as an alternative to providing direct concessional credit to the poor—which...