-Down to Earth Facilities of inter-state portability for food security and selecting a fair price ration shop of one’s choice has been availed by 58% migrant workers Every fifth family in India is still unaware about the benefits of the portability facility provided by the ‘One Nation, One Ration Card’ (ONORC) scheme, considered to be key to the success of the public distribution system (PDS). This is according to a recent study...

Online teaching was perhaps the most preferred mode (of the policymakers) for imparting education to school children in the last two years when schools faced closures thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was promoted by both the Central and State Governments when mobility almost came to a standstill (or got restricted in comparison to normal times) during the last two years. However, various studies (a list of those studies is...

-Down to Earth There has been no announcement on compensation to farmers who have lost their crops Twenty farmers have died by suicide since January 2022 in Telangana’s Mahabubad district after insect infestation destroyed their chilli crop, a ground survey by the Human Rights Forum (HRF) and Rythu Swarajya Vedika (RSV) has claimed. Five suicides have also been reported in Khammam district. Thrips parvispinus, an invasive pest from Indonesia, has spread rapidly, especially...

-The Wire Science There is reason to celebrate the drop of India’s maternal mortality rate: the decline is consistent and continuous, indicating that the reproductive health of India’s women is getting better. However, a closer look at the state-level MMR data reveals that the all-India three-year average of maternal deaths camouflages the performance of some states. We can predict that the Empowered Action Group states and Assam will have to redouble their...

-The Wire Science New Delhi: India’s maternal mortality ratio (MMR) has improved to 103 for the period between 2017 and 2019. However, despite an overall improvement, the ratio has remained the same for some states, according to the Sample Registration System’s (SRS) estimate released by the Registrar General of India. In some states, like West Bengal, Haryana and Uttarakhand, the ratio has worsened. As per the 2020 data, during the period of...