KEY TRENDS   • During 2014-15, while procurement of foodgrains (rice and wheat) increased from 56.9 million tonnes to 60.2 million tonnes, offtake of foodgrains (rice and wheat) from the PDS decreased from 59.8 million tonnes to 55.9 million tonnes. Despite increased availability in the PDS and prevalence of high inflation in foodgrains, dependence on the PDS is reducing, suggesting that there may be issues of availability, timely availability and quality of the PDS foodgrains...

-The Indian Express What makes the Elderly especially vulnerable to the virus? James Diaz, a professor at Louisiana State University’s School of Public Health, has hypothesised that the reason could lie in the victims’ medications. Across the world, the novel coronavirus has killed Elderly people the most, especially those with pre-existing medical conditions such as heart disease. According to the US Centre for Disease Control (CDC), the fatality rate from COVID-19 is...