-IndiaSpend.com All-India picture unclear as only three states are sharing comorbidity data of Covid-19 deceased. Doctors are calling upon states to reveal data on both comorbidities and the spread of variants to gauge their impact on Covid-19 deaths Kolkata: More people without any underlying comorbid conditions died of Covid-19 during the peak of the second wave of the pandemic in West Bengal, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu than in the peak of the...

-Scroll.in The focus is on providing food grains to the very poor as against supporting that with more funding for existing nutrition-focussed welfare programmes. Data collated from a recent paper -studying the impact of the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020 by Jean Dreze and Anmol Somanchi reflect the grim condition of India’s looming malnutrition crisis. In a co-authored essay around April 2020, we had argued how the “hidden costs of this pandemic” (and the...

-Newsclick.in 'What we witnessed in the past seven months and experienced first-hand reminds us of the Emergency 46 years ago. Today, it is not just the farmers’ movement that is facing repression...' the farmers' memorandum read. In a spectacular show of strength, farmers’ organisations on Saturday protested in front of the houses of governors and observed 'Save Agriculture, Save Constitution Day' in more than 20 states and union territories against the central...

-Newsclick.in Rice meant for the poor will be sold at subsidised rates to privately-owned ethanol distilleries. The industries will be given cheap loans and exempted from Environmental Clearances. Is the Modi government subsidising the rich at the cost of the poor by diverting foodgrains meant for the most impoverished sections of the population to private industries for producing alcohol for India’s ethanol blended petrol programme? There’s more: For manufacturing ethanol, foodgrains will not...

-IndiaSpend.com To fight hunger and distress due to the pandemic, India must universalise foodgrain distribution, expand the food basket in its rations scheme and provide cash transfers, activist Anjali Bhardwaj tells us in this interview Bengaluru: The pandemic-induced lockdowns have had a profound impact on livelihoods, affecting poor Indians' food intake, studies show. In October 2020, more than half the respondents of a Hunger Survey said their rice/wheat consumption had declined during...