-Down to Earth Around 88% respondents want to switch to less-polluting alternatives but report they are not easily available Around 12.3 billion sanitary napkins, amounting to 113,000 tonnes of waste, reached India’s landfills every year, according to a new study. Improper disposal and non-segregation from household waste leads to unhygienic working condition for waste workers, the report said. Commonly available sanitary napkins constitute 90 per cent plastic, the report claimed. India generates 3.3...

-The Hindu Centre urges States to issue more ration cards to vulnerable. Almost a third of all ration card holders are yet to get their free foodgrains allocation for May under the Centre’s COVID-19 relief scheme, according to the Food Ministry. At a press conference on Thursday, Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey also said it was up to the States to take further action on providing rations to migrants and others without ration...

-The Hindu It is to assess Budget benefits for SC/STs, Rural Development Secretary says. The decision to split MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) wage payments by caste categories was done on the advice of the Finance Ministry in order to assess and highlight the benefits flowing from budgetary outlay towards Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, Rural Development Secretary N.N. Sinha told The Hindu on Thursday. He said this should...

-The New Indian Express Lists Kerala and north-east states as vulnerable spots for outbreak BENGALURU: A recent study has revealed that the global ‘hotspots’ where the new deadly coronaviruses may emerge, driven by global changes in land use by humans. While China tops the list, the study mentions India’s Kerala and North-East states as vulnerable hotspots. The study ‘Land-use change and the livestock revolution increase the risk of zoonotic coronavirus transmission from...

-The Hindu The U.S. push for a global minimum corporate tax may help India, but it can also cause international disagreements The Pillar Two proposal was the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) plan to plug the remaining Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) issues and provide jurisdictions the right to “tax back” where other jurisdictions have either not exercised their primary taxing right or have exercised it at low levels...