-The Indian Express Last week, the ICMR brought out an advisory on pooled testing, ideally in districts where incidence of COVID-19 is low. Faced with criticism about insufficient testing and the reality of limited resources, India has decided go for pooled testing in districts where no cases have been reported. This would on the one hand give data on whether these really are zero-case districts, and on the other, save resources. * What...

-Livemint.com MGNREGS could alleviate rural distress but, in its current form, its overall impact on the rural economy is limited in scope With rural distress deepening across India and private consumption growing anaemically, calls for ramping up the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), are growing louder ahead of the upcoming budget. Proponents of MGNREGS believe that it may be the only ammunition in the government’s arsenal to fight rural...

-Livemint.com The Centre will find that it pays to listen to those who have exit options but prefer to voice grievances When and why do people protest? Why do they protest over some issues but not others? These questions have come up since the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) was enacted and the possibility of an all-India National Register of Citizens (NRC). The persistence of protests against the CAA and NRC and its...

-Press release by Centre for Science and Environment, dated 17 December, 2019 Levels of salt, fat in junk foods way higher than proposed thresholds, says new CSE lab study Points out that industry is opposing notification of draft regulation because then we will know how bad their food is Expert group made recommendations six years ago, but the draft regulation that has emerged is severely diluted -- even this much-diluted draft...

-Livemint.com * As Andhra buys into English medium education, the language has become a symbol of progress in uncertain times * While there is a resistance to the imposition of Hindi in the south, English is embraced as it is less threatening with regard to racial and ethnic dominance, and more promising of an economic future The English language has been a great survivor in India. From being labelled as a scheming, rootless...