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The Telegraph June 4, 2020 The Jharkhand rural development department has set a target of giving 10 lakh jobs to migrant workers through the  pani roko, paudha ropo  (conserve water, plant trees) campaign Integrating the various water conservation techniques with plantation of fruit-bearing trees and linking it to the MGNREGA scheme, the campaign was launched this month across 24 districts to provide jobs to migrant workers, who would get a daily wage of Rs 194. State rural development minister and Congress legislator Alamgir Alam said: “Almost five lakh migrant workers have returned so far. We are expecting around two lakh more to return. Amid the Covid-19 crisis, we have found an opportunity to provide jobs to 10 lakh people. Work has already started in all 24 districts. Migrant workers from Jharkhand and other states, who have lost their livelihood in urban areas owing to the adverse effect of Covid-19, will be accommodated in such schemes. They will get a daily wage of R

The Telegarph June 4, 2020 The Union cabinet on Wednesday allowed farmers to sell their products anywhere in the country, took steps to encourage contract farming and removed several items from the Essential Commodities Act. Farm minister Narendra Singh Tomar said the moves were a “historic step”, but analysts were sceptical. The cabinet approved The Farming Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020 that will allow buyers to purchase directly from farmers, while farmers can sell anywhere in the country. The changes allow the farmers to sell outside the mandis mandated by the agriculture produce market committees (APMC) of the state governments. The government also approved The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance, 2020 to empower farmers to engage with processors, aggregators, wholesalers, large retailers and exporters — a move which will encourage contract farming. The cabinet also

The Indian Express June 4, 2020 Balram Bhargava Before the  COVID-19   pandemic  hit the world, we would often refer to science-fiction for cutting edge research such as brain transplants or bioengineering. But in my three decades of work in clinical medicine and medical research, never have I come across something that has transformed the global health landscape as much as the humble vaccine. While the pandemic has highlighted their importance, vaccines have always been the frontrunners in saving lives: With their help, we are able to prevent the death of two to three million children globally every year. It is because of vaccines that we managed to eradicate highly contagious diseases such as smallpox, which used to kill millions only a few decades ago. In India, vaccines have helped us defeat polio — the country was certified polio-free by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2014. In 2015, the country also eliminated maternal and neonatal tetanus. While we might not be ce

The Indian Express June 4, 2020 C. Raja. Mohan In its preoccupation with the perennial challenges in the neighbourhood and its enduring aspiration to dance with the great powers, India has in the past missed out on the opportunities for productive partnerships with the middle powers. Thursday’s virtual summit between Prime Minister  Narendra Modi  and the Australian premier, Scott Morrison, is an important part of Delhi’s current diplomatic effort to plug that big gap in India’s diplomatic tradition. Few countries have been as underestimated in India as Australia. Take the simplest metric, for example — economic weight. With a GDP of more than US$1.4 trillion, Australia is the 13th largest economy in the world, following closely behind Russia which stands at $1.6 trillion. Australia is rich in natural resources that India’s growing economy needs. It also has huge reservoirs of strength in higher education, scientific and technological research. In the global diplomatic arena,

The Indian Express June 4, 2020 The extension of the lockdown and the rising number of  COVID-19  infections seem to have pushed the country towards a more cash-driven economy. Even though state governments have started relaxing retail trade restrictions, the relentless rise in currency with the public is continuing with people taking out cash worth another Rs 39,028 crore during the fortnight ended May 22. Currency with the public has now risen by Rs 1,63,135 crore from April 1 this year to Rs 25.12 lakh crore as of May 22. According to data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday, currency with public has gone up by 18.7 per cent, or Rs 3,95,484 crore, on a year-on-year basis as against Rs 2.63,573 crore, or 14.2 per cent, in the previous year. With the lockdown continuing, people’s reliance on cash is expected to rise further in the next one or two months. However, the pace of the growth has come down from the March and April levels. As per the RBI definiti

The Indian Express June 4, 2020 Abantika Ghosh, Anuradha Mascarenh THE WORLD Health Organisation (WHO) has decided to resume the  hydroxychloroquine (HCQ)  part of its Solidarity Trial, a global effort to find a treatment for  Covid-19 , after The Lancet issued an “expression of concern” over a study it had published that had questioned the effectiveness of HCQ. The  WHO had suspended the HCQ  segment of its trial based on this study published on May 22. This study, ostensibly, used data from hospitals obtained by Chicago-based company Surgisphere founded by Dr Sapan Desai who is one of the co-authors. The study said it had failed to find any benefit of HCQ or CQ (chloroquine, which too is anti-malarial) in Covid treatment. And that these were associated with “decreased in-hospital survival and an increased frequency of ventricular arrhythmias” when used for Covid treatment. After The Lancet red-flagged that study, on Wednesday, WHO quoted its director general Tedros A

Firstpost June 4, 2020 Alingar, Afghanistan:  Under the shade of a mulberry tree, near gravesites dotted with Taliban flags, a top insurgent military leader in eastern Afghanistan acknowledged that the group had suffered devastating losses from US strikes and government operations over the past decade. But those losses have changed little on the ground: The Taliban keep replacing their dead and wounded and delivering brutal violence. “We see this fight as worship,” said Mawlawi Mohammed Qais, the head of the Taliban’s military commission in Laghman province, as dozens of his fighters waited nearby on a hillside. “So if a brother is killed, the second brother won’t disappoint God’s wish — he’ll step into the brother’s shoes.”   It was March, and the Taliban had just signed a peace deal with the United States that now puts the movement on the brink of realising its most fervent desire — the complete exit of US troops from Afghanistan. The Taliban have outlasted a superpo