-Down to Earth Aggressive sugarcane farming contaminates land, water The Union government intends to increase the amount of ethanol in the energy mix to lower the country’s dependence on imported oil and carbon footprint, as well as stabilise petrol prices. India currently blends about 8.5 per cent ethanol in petrol. The government is targeting a 10 per cent ethanol blend by 2022 and a 20 per cent blend (E20) by 2025. E20 can save...
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DNA Bill must weigh concerns on privacy, undue stigmatisation
-The Financial Express The DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill will be taken up by Parliament in the ongoing monsoon session. The DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill will be taken up by Parliament in the ongoing monsoon session. The Bill has had several iterations over the past 15 years, even as more than 60 nations have given the requisite legislative backing to the activities involving DNA technology—largely policing/ investigative...
More »Himachal Pradesh ‘excess deaths’ twice the official COVID-19 toll -Srinivasan Ramani
-The Hindu State registers the lowest undercount factor in north India The number of “excess deaths” registered by the Civil Registration System (CRS) in Himachal Pradesh ever since the COVID-19 pandemic hit (from April 2020 to May 2021) was 6,081, which is 1.9 times the official reported figure of 3,127 COVID-19 deaths for the same period. This multiple is among the lowest for States for which excess deaths have been calculated. Interestingly, while...
More »Oxfam report highlights sharp inequalities in health indicators
-The Hindu General category is better off than the SCs and STs, it says Sharp inequalities exist across different caste, religious, class and gender categories on various health indicators, according to a report by Oxfam India. The report titled “India Inequality Report 2021: India’s Unequal Healthcare Story” shows that the “general category is better off than the SCs and STs, Hindus are better off than Muslims, the rich are better off than the...
More »Banks turn cautious on student loans -Sangeetha Kandavel and Sanjay Vijayakumar
-The Hindu There has been sharp rise in the NPAs amid COVID-19 pandemic With unemployment rising, the ability of those who have taken education loans to pay back has come down sharply. As a result, the non-performing assets (NPAs) have increased in the last one-and-a-half years. R. Nagarajan had taken a loan for his engineering course and started repaying it when he got a job at a start-up in the second half of...
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