-The Hindu It officially objected to affixing nationality to the virus variant later The government used the term “Indian Double Mutant strain” in an affidavit filed in the Supreme Court just days before it officially objected to affixing nationality to the virus variant. A May 9 affidavit refers to “Indian Double Mutant strain” while detailing the steps taken by the Indian Council of Medical Research and the National Institute of Virology to develop...

-Hindustan Times There has been shocking, collective policy failure. Focus on controlling the spread of infections, taking care of the ill, vaccination, and genome sequencing now There are four factors why the second wave has hit India with such intensity. First, the variants. The B.1.1.7, the one from the United Kingdom (UK), is present in parts of northern India. B.1.617, sometimes known as the “Double Mutant”, is pervasive in many places across India....

-TheWire.in A three to six-month fiscal plan has to be chalked out to make vaccines and drugs available to people of all ages across the states by bringing in the private sector. An income support scheme has to be rolled out for nine months at least. India reported a new high of 2 lakh fresh coronavirus positive cases for the first time last week, and the last few days continue to see...

India seems to have arrived at the threshold of polio eradication, but should it lower its guard? ON January 13, India achieved what had only two years ago seemed impossible in the immediate term. The country, which, given the epidemiological data in the new millennium, had come to be regarded by health experts around the world as one that would be the last to achieve freedom from polio (poliomyelitis), recorded no...

Breakthroughs in the production and productivity of wheat and rice in the sixties and of cotton recently have been much appreciated, but similar advances in maize have gone largely unnoticed and unsung. Maize output has soared in the past 10 years from a mere 12 million tonnes in 2000-01 to over 21 million tonnes in 2010-11. This increase can largely be attributed to a surge in crop productivity rather than...