-The Hindu Haryana, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Maharashtra are the top States registering a rise in the number of COVID cases India’s indigenous COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin from Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotechis now authorised for emergency use on a par with Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covishield, NITI Aayog’s member (health) V.K. Paul said on Thursday. India is now seeing a rise in the number of active cases after touching lowest mark in mid-February. Haryana, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh,...

-Scroll.in In patriarchal societies, industrialisation and structural transformation are necessary preconditions for the emancipation of women. Around 1900, women in East Asia and South Asia were equally oppressed and unfree. But over the course of the 20th century, gender equality in East Asia advanced far ahead of South Asia. What accounts for this divergence? The first-order difference between East and South Asia is economic development. East Asian women left the countryside in droves...

-The Hindu A study at the Ludhiana-based Punjab Agricultural University to track the impact of Farmer Producer Organisations (FPO) on the income and employment of farmers in Punjab during 2019-20, has revealed that incomes increased after farmers joined the FPOs and the impact was greater among small, marginal and semi-medium farmers. Chandigarh: The study, titled “Economic Impact of Farmer Producer Organisations on Punjab Peasantry”, asserts that overall, the while permanent labour employment...

-The Hindu Its analysis says recontesting MLAs’, MPs’ assets went up by 39% An analysis of MLAs who switched parties and recontested elections from 2016 to 2020 has found that the BJP was the biggest gainer, while the Congress accounted for the most MLAs who quit to join another party. The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) report released on Thursday analysed the election affidavits of 443 MLAs and MPs who switched parties and...

-Down to Earth The environment ministry on February 22 wrote to all states, seeking their views on the matter, according to documents Does granting forest clearance to an agency lead to its name entering land title records? The Union environment ministry recently asked this to all states and Union territories. The letter dated February 22, 2021 from Assistant Inspector General of Forests Suneet Bhardwaj came on the back of repeated requests by the...