-The Hindu They advise against Covaxin, say there is no proof of efficacy. Several experts have raised concern over the “hasty approval” granted to the COVID-19 vaccines despite the lack of adequate efficacy data. The Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation on Sunday accorded approval for restricted emergency use of the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine Covishield, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII), and the indigenously developed vaccine Covaxin of Bharat Biotech. “I’m completely unaware...

-Article-14.com Uttar Pradesh uses the National Security Act against cow-slaughter suspects. In Gujarat, killing a cow attracts life imprisonment. In recent times, a constitutional reference to agriculture and animal husbandry—from which these laws flow—manifests itself mostly in violence against Muslims. Exclusive extract from a new book The chronology of the various pieces of state legislation shows that cow protection laws have become harsher in India over time. And the meaning of the...

-Hindustan Times The note, which has been reviewed by HT, paints a grim picture of the global economy going forward, does not rule out something like the Great Depression of the 1930s, and sees a rise in poverty, unemployment and debt. The Covid-19 pandemic will transform the global economic order for worse, with a “market subverting” China emerging as the alternative pole to the US, says a background note of the Niti...

-Article-14.com The Uttar Pradesh government is entangling Dalits, Adivasis, who demand land rights or protest displacement, in cobwebs of criminality by using its version of a colonial law meant to unconstitutionally exile and humiliate ‘goondas’. Mumbai/ New Delhi: The Uttar Pradesh (UP) government has filed more than 25 criminal cases against a 65-year-old Dalit farmer called Shyamlal Paswan, ever since he sought formal rights to the land he farmed. Under the Forest Rights...

-Hindustan Times The anti-CAA protests, the defiance of migrants, and now the farmers’ stir show that the everyday practice of democracy is a powerful corrective in the face of arbitrary and unilateral State decisions Three events defined India’s political landscape in 2020. The protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), the migrant labour crisis that unfolded as workers defied lockdown orders and asserted their rights, choosing to walk home in the face...