-The Hindu The increase in temperature would reduce the quality of harvested wheat since it thrives in cold weather Unusual warm weather conditions, accompanied by a prolonged dry spell in Punjab and Haryana have left farmers and experts anxious, who fear that prevailing climate conditions would not just harm the quality of the ready to harvest wheat crop, but could also delay and increase the cost of cultivation for sowing cotton, the...

-The Hindu The primary responsibility of the legislature is to fulfil the aspirations of the people, and lawmakers should ensure that laws are enacted only after thorough debate and discussion, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla said on Monday. Mr. Birla made these remarks while inaugurating the 8th India region conference of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) at Assam Legislative Assembly. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Deputy Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha Harivansh,...

-The Hindu 144 institutions were de-empanelled Non-genuine 18,606 hospital transactions were detected in the Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) with penalty amounting to Rs.29.72 crore being levied on erring hospitals. Also 144 hospitals were de-empanelled from the scheme based on confirmed fraudulent behavior, said the Health Ministry in its reply to the Parliament in the recently concluded session. The Ministry added that the National Health Authority (NHA)—the implementing agency...

-Hindustan Times Almost two and a half years after the 2017-18 Consumption Expenditure Survey (CES) was scrapped, the ‘great Indian poverty debate’ seems to have resurrected itself. The second season of this debate, interestingly, has started from Washington DC, not India. Poverty statistics in India have always been the subject of controversy. The country saw a big debate on the trend in poverty and the veracity of poverty estimates in the 2000s....

-The Hindu “The current version of the text added new burdensome conditions that would impose additional limits on countries using non-voluntary licensing” Six experts from India, South Africa and the United States have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reject the current version of a proposal at the World Trade Organisation on intellectual property waivers for COVID-19 medicines, that includes vaccines, drugs and diagnostics. In October 2020, at the WTO’s Trade Related...