-Down to Earth Instead of putting Punjab farmers at the mercy of big corporates and private players, there is a need to strengthen existing infrastructure The Union government announced three agriculture-related ordinances as part of its novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) relief package — permitting agricultural trade outside the boundaries of market committees, easing regulation and control under the Essential Commodities Act and facilitating contract farming. Out of these, the Farmers’ Produce Trade and...

-The Indian Express There is an urgent requirement to put money in the hands of the impoverished to support them during the pandemic. This has been the refrain of the Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee. Further, the government must tighten the implementation of its critical schemes related to nutrition, food security and healthcare. The COVID-19 pandemic is flaring up into a mass humanitarian crisis. Its foremost victim will be innocent children who have...

-The Indian Express The state's massive exercise to prepare a database of returning migrant workers nears completion, provides detailed profile of workforce as government seeks to connect them with potential employers. As the Uttar Pradesh government nears the end of its massive exercise to profile the skills of over 30 lakh migrant workers who have returned following the outbreak of the Coronavirus epidemic, analysis of the data has revealed the extent both...

-The Indian Express What is disturbing is that in the middle of the current crisis some are now calling for a massive downsizing of the PDS and a shift to cash transfers in place of foodgrains. The Public Distribution System has played an important role in providing relief to people in the aftermath of the national lockdown. With COVID-19 cases increasing and the economy continuing to be in a downturn, some corrective...

-Livemint.com Sen said the main reason why Kerala has done a good job in tackling Covid-19 is because of the giant strides the state has made in the public education and the health sector Ernakulam: Kerala's Covid-19 mitigation efforts were lauded by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen and political philosopher Noam Chomsky, in a state-hosted discussion on the post-Coronavirus world, which was aired on Friday. The discussion series, ''Kerala Dialogue'', is an effort to...