KEY TRENDS   • Oxfam India's 2023 India Supplement report on poverty and inequality in India reveals that the gap between the rich and the poor is widening. Following the pandemic in 2019, the bottom 50 per cent of the population have continued to see their wealth chipped away. By 2020, their income share was estimated to have fallen to only 13 per cent of the national income and have less than 3...

-TheWire.in * Neither the CDSCO nor the national advisory group on immunisation was taken into confidence before Prime Minister Modi announced the rollout of booster doses. * In reply to a series of RTI applications by The Wire Science, the PMO and the health ministry refused to divulge details of the government’s decision-making. * One reply indicated that the government had misled the Supreme Court about the availability of the minutes of an...

-The Telegraph Drug helps patients recover from fever in an average of three days and from cough in four days A painkiller called indomethacin prescribed for arthritis and spondylitis is an effective treatment for mild or moderate Covid-19, Chennai-based researchers have told India’s apex health research agency, seeking its inclusion in Covid-19 treatment guidelines. The researchers have submitted what they claim are “striking” study results, indicating that patients of mild or moderate Covid-19...

-Press release by National Coalition on the Education Emergency (NCEE) dated January 22, 2022 Schools in Bengaluru remain closed while malls, theatres, pubs and restaurants have been kept open. As of 21 January, the weekend curfew has been lifted as well. The decision to keep schools closed is having catastrophic consequences on children. Schools had only recently started opening after remaining mostly closed since March 2020. Their being closed again spells...

-Press release by National Coalition on the Education Emergency (NCEE) dated January 4, 2022 We note with concern, that governments are considering or planning school closure as Covid cases are on the rise. Delhi, Goa and Haryana governments have ordered school closure. Karnataka TAC has recommended a TPR of 2 percent to close schools and colleges. This will spell a disaster for children. Schools have recently opened after remaining mostly closed since...