-The Hindu How the Public Health versus economic health trade-off can be resolved during this pandemic As it fights COVID-19 with its meagre healthcare resources, India has chosen to bring the economy to a near halt with no clear idea of how many lives can be saved in this manner. What is going to be the cost of this decision? The 21-day lockdown will reduce the gross value added (GVA) during this...
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Amartya Sen writes: Overcoming a pandemic may look like fighting a war, but the real need is far from that
-The Indian Express Amartya Sen writes: Tackling a social calamity is not like fighting a war which works best when a leader can use top-down power to order everyone to do what the leader wants — with no need for consultation. In contrast, what is needed for dealing with a social calamity is participatory governance and alert public discussion. We have reason to take pride in the fact that India is the...
More »Coronavirus: Centre concerned over polarisation on religious lines -S Vijay Kumar
-The Hindu Ensure safety of health workers, it says Chennai: The Centre has expressed serious concern over the “polarising public opinion on religious lines” against the backdrop of a particular community being targeted as being responsible for the spread of COVID-19 in the country. In a note issued to all States on Tuesday, the Union Government said a sizeable number of non-Muslims was getting a perception that a particular community was not taking...
More »K Sujatha Rao, former Union Secretary at Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, interviewed by Narayan Lakshman (The Hindu)
-The Hindu Former Union Health Secretary says the infection has come mainly from those middle-class people who have been abroad and come back to India K. Sujatha Rao served as Union Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for the Indian government, until 2010, where she was involved in the process for a national policy for use of antibiotics, introducing vaccines in Public Health, and the first-ever national programme for non-communicable diseases....
More »Perils of lockdown and informal sector workers: Reflections in the time of Covid-19 -Amrita Ghatak & Kingshuk Sarkar
-Vikalp.ind.in The unprecedented fear of Covid-19 leading to ‘social distancing’ through lockdown in the entire India has yet again unfolded the plight of informal sector workers even in the midst of a universal Public Health crisis worldwide. The lockdown, for a huge number of informal sector workers is associated with the loss of livelihood; but for others engaged in low-valued essential works such as home delivery, scavenging and cleaning the society,...
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