-Committee to Protect Journalists On March 26, two days after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a national lockdown to control the spreading of COVID-19, Hindi-language daily Jansandesh Times reported that a tribe in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh state, didn’t have enough to eat due to the sudden announcement and that children were eating grass. The same day, the magistrate of Varanasi district, Kaushal Raj Sharma, sent a legal notice to the...

-The Indian Express The impact of the lockdown may make social issues more prominent again in terms of class, at the expense of caste as well as religious identities and communal tendencies. When interviewed by journalists, several migrant workers badly affected by the COVID-19-related lockdown admitted that they had voted for the BJP in 2019. Indeed, the party attracted poor voters in large numbers during the last Lok Sabha elections, especially among...

-Business Standard/ Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) It is logical to believe that employment conditions in India have deteriorated quite substantially during 2019-20. Economic growth has slowed down and investments show no sign of picking up. Outlook for the economy in 2020-21, and therefore also for employment, is also getting increasingly difficult by the day. With capacity utilisation remaining very low at around 70 per cent, the prospects of an...

-The Telegraph Delhi poll verdict shows aligning political expediency with actual health needs of the country seems possible A by-product of the Delhi assembly election results was the political vindication of the idea of ‘Mohalla clinics’. The lessons offered by these institutions and their implications for Indian healthcare merit discussion. The first Mohalla clinic was opened in West Delhi in 2015 as part of an initiative of the Delhi state government to open...

-The Tribune Political psychologist Ashis Nandy, a pioneer of Indian critical thought, has over the years delved into areas other than routine academic concerns. Honorary Fellow at Centre for Studies of Developing Societies, New Delhi, Nandy is currently working on genocide. In an interview to The Tribune, he speaks of the psychology of rioters, the anatomy of violence and challenges of identity politics. Excerpts: * Delhi just witnessed a riot. What makes...