-The Hindu With better governance, northern States can bring their health systems on a par with southern States In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been vociferous demands to strengthen the country’s public health system. Many erudite articles have stressed the need to revamp the system quickly so that we are better prepared to handle such emergencies in the future. Once the present crisis is over, however, public health will...

-The Hindu Farmer advocates not impressed by on-ground impact of budget announcements The Union Budget sent mixed signals to the tens of thousands of farmers who have been protesting on Delhi’s borders for the last two months, and the wider agricultural community. On the one hand, the budget allocation for the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare was slashed 8.5% in 2021-22. The flagship PM-KISAN scheme, meant to provide income support to...

-The Hindu It is the supreme authority of Parliament which has the power to solve the issue despite the negotiations outside The deadlock between protesting farmers and the government on the contentious farm laws have taken an ugly turn, with incidents of vandalism during the tractor parade by the protesting farmers on January 26. It is as yet unclear as to how the peaceful protest for the last two months was allowed...

-OutlookIndia.com Missing in common images of the 'kisan', not counted by economists, not found on property papers. Recent events put the focus on the silent workforce of our farms. This is India’s shameful secret, as it is the world’s. The ‘formal’ economy—where human toil and its fruits are counted and put on graphs—has always had an area of darkness. A very large area that it pretends doesn’t exist. “Women hold up half...

-The Hindu A look at how the RTI Act has been systematicallyassaulted by successive governments to blunt its efficacy and make governance less transparent For 24 years, until the enactment of the Right to Information Act (RTI) in 2005, Shivaji Raut was an ordinary teacher, the vice-principal of Anant English Medium School in Satara district in western Maharashtra. But when he discovered the power of RTI in demanding accountability and transparency from...