-Press release by Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha dated by 25th March, 2020 Jharkhand, like most of India, has woken up late to the COVID-19 pandemic and is yet to provide adequate social security to the people. Although no COVID-19 case has been officially reported in Jharkhand so far, this may be a myth since the state has only one testing centre where only a few dozen samples have been tested, according to...

-The Hindu ‘Barefoot College’s archives bear testimony to Ms. Lindsay’s methodical and painstaking work’ Manya Jayaram Lindsay, younger sister of social activist Aruna Roy, died in Hitchin, U.K., after suffering from cancer in recent years. She had set up the preventive and curative health structure at the Social Work and Research Centre (SWRC), Tilonia — widely known as the Barefoot College — and studied indigenous people in the U.S. and Australia, and...

-The Hindu Business Line India’s over-dependence on private players for vaccines is promoting irrational use and restricting access that leads to unacceptable fatalities The death of an eight-year-old girl, Anju, this August after denial of anti-rabies vaccine at Agra’s Sarojini Naidu Medical College (SNMC) is followed by the admission by Health Ministry that fatality rate for rabies in India is 100 per cent. Although the circumstance of Anju’s death is particularly Kafkaesque...

-Financial Express We have been hearing the expression ‘Industry 4.0’ ever since the idea of ‘smart factory’ was unveiled in Hannover in April 2013. Many opine ‘Agriculture 4.0’ akin to 4G of telecom. I believe Agriculture 4.0 is “going back to basics, but with technology as its underpinning” to usher in sustainability, in the wake of climate change and degradation of our agricultural ecosystems. We need to re-look at agriculture with...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Underlining the importance of wetlands not only as a source of water but also as ecosystems that prevent land degradation and desertification, the Centre has identified 130 wetlands for priority restoration in the next five years and asked states to submit their respective integrated management plan by October 15. The highest number of such identified wetlands are in Uttar Pradesh (16) followed by Madhya Pradesh (13),...