A PANDEMIC, AN ECONOMIC BLOW AND THE BIG FIX
Why in news? India has just finished a day of curfew on 22nd March 2020, and clapping to practice ‘social distancing’ and to express gratitude to the millions of health and essential services workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a laudable initiative by the Prime Minister to rally the nation together. The nation is […]
HARMONISING WITH NATURE
Introduction and examples of learning from crisis Aristotle Onassis counselled, “It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.” So, even as we, along with millions of our fellow citizens, observe the curfew while under a lockdown, this hiatus offers a rare opportunity to reflect and take the long view. […]
THE PANDEMIC AND THE CONTOURS OF A HEALTH RESPONSE
India’s worries India is facing the worst public health crisis in its independent history which pales the earlier ones such as AIDS, SARS and H1N1 into insignificance. The speed at which the virus entered the country and the multiple challenges it has posed before the people and the government are unprecedented. While the initial response […]
WANTED, A COLLECTIVE NATIONAL ENDEAVOUR
Some excerpts from the article on “What can be done?” We are all in it together and representatives of all political parties should work together to deal with what we are told is the severest crisis since Independence. The Centre must have the State Governments as equal partners while taking decisions. The most productive effort […]
EXPLAINED: ARMED FORCES IN CORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK BATTLE
Why in news? As the Army moves in to take over the COVID-19 quarantine facility at Narela in Delhi, the procedure for calling the armed forces to help the civil administration is in the spotlight. What is the procedure? The regulations permit civil authorities to requisition the Army for controlling law and order, maintaining essential […]
LIMITING TRANSMISSION IN HOTSPOTS WITH WIDER TRACING AND TESTING STRATEGY
Why in news? Even after the Health Ministry on March 28 acknowledged on its website that there was “limited community transmission”, India’s national taskforce for COVID-19 continues to deny it. Now, a paper in the Indian Journal of Medical Research, by ICMR and Health Ministry researchers, provides evidence of community transmission in 36 districts in […]
DONALD TRUMP THREATENS TO STOP MONEY TO WHO
Why in news? On 7th April, President Donald Trump threatened to freeze US funding to the World Health Organization (WHO), saying the international group had “missed the call” on the coronavirus pandemic. Trump’s views Trump said the body had “called it wrong” on COVID-19 and that it was very “Chinacentric” in its approach. He suggested that […]
WILL COVID-19 AFFECT THE COURSE OF GLOBALISATION?
With several countries and regions locked down, will there be a redrawing of geographical boundaries? Much of what we saw in terms of global integration of trade and finance would suffer in the short run. When the world was hit by economic recession in 2008, trade dipped by almost 10% in 2009 when there was […]
A KEY ARSENAL IN RURAL INDIA’S PANDEMIC FIGHT
Ground Realities in Villages- COVID-19 Lockdown With the influx of thousands of migrant labourers into their villages, there is an imminent need to isolate them for at least 14 days. Unfortunately, the houses here, which are often one or two-room dwellings, with an average seven family members to accommodate, are some of the worst places […]
NEEDED, GREATER DECENTRALISATION OF POWER
Why in news? Over the course of the last few weeks, as we have found ourselves in the throes of a pandemic, one of the striking features of governance has been the signal role played by State Chief Ministers across India. What did the Governments do? Even before the Union government invoked the Disaster Management […]