-TelanganaToday.com India’s food subsidy programmes have the capacity to respond to increased demand. Thoughtful adjustment would reap large-scale benefits. Covid-19 lockdowns aggravated food deprivation in India. The pandemic also revealed opportunities to expand the country’s food subsidy programmes. India’s Public Distribution System (PDS) offers subsidised foodgrains to eligible households. Public pressure during Covid-19 lockdowns led to a brief expansion in the number of beneficiaries in States such as Delhi. Though temporary, the expansion...

-The Telegraph The BJP’s nationalism would have been credible if it had a humane, inclusive face The prime minister has assured his legion of admirers that India’s stature is rising in the global order. The countrymen, however, can spot only one thing that is on an unprecedented rise: the price of essential commodities. On Tuesday, the price of diesel scored a century in Bengal, much like petrol that is already burning a...

-The Hindu “The current version of the text added new burdensome conditions that would impose additional limits on countries using non-voluntary licensing” Six experts from India, South Africa and the United States have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reject the current version of a proposal at the World Trade Organisation on intellectual property waivers for COVID-19 medicines, that includes vaccines, drugs and diagnostics. In October 2020, at the WTO’s Trade Related...

-TheWire.in Data shows that the share of meat-eaters has risen in all the States in India in the past decade, with Delhi showing the highest increase. Moreover, 71% of Indians over the age of 15 are non-vegetarian. New Delhi: For the first time in New Delhi, the civic body has announced the closure of meat shops during the Hindu festival of Navratri, shutting down people’s livelihoods and denying people the right to...

-Down to Earth People in low-, middle-income countries often have to pay out of their pocket and seek care elsewhere Funding in primary healthcare systems in low- and middle-income countries is insufficient and access to it inequitable, a new study has reiterated. Patients often have to pay for the services out of their pocket, the report published in the journal The Lancet Global Health April 4, 2022 noted, adding that these systems have...