'When the lockdown grounded a billion people, nothing had been planned well: Testing, masks, face shields, protective gear, medical equipment, contact tracing ... nothing.' 'Before COVID, if you didn't know that the state had neither the money, nor the intent, nor the capacity to govern wisely and humanely, you were simply blind.' 'After COVID, if we continue to look to the State, look forward to a financial package or ask "What is the government doing" when faced with a calamity, the joke is on us, says Debashis Basu.
'Each cyclone has its own identity and its own behaviour based on the environmental conditions in the ocean and in the atmosphere.'
Yediyurappa termed these two years as 'trial by fire', pointing out that he had to run the administration without a cabinet in the initial days, followed by devastating floods and the challenge of COVID-19 management, among other issues.
Don't think twice to secure your most prized possession. It protects your precious home against unforeseen calamities
The cover will pay only for the construction cost of the building.
On this day 167 years ago, the wheels of the first passenger train in the country from Mumbai to Thane started rolling.
West Bengal and Odisha have evacuated lakhs of people from vulnerable areas to safety as severe cyclonic storm 'Yaas' is nearing the coast and is expected to make landfall near Dhamra Port in Bhadrak district early on Wednesday morning.
With two more deaths, the fatalities due to flood this year has gone up to 18.
People working at the Nigambodh Ghat -- perhaps the busiest cremation site in the national capital in the wake of outbreak of the pandemic -- go about their job with resilience, helping in whatever way possible.
The vaccination rate needs to go up by three to four times, assert Ajay Shah and Amrita Agarwal.
Pegging the cost of the covid-19 lockdown at USD 120 billion (approximately Rs 9 lakh crores) or 4 per cent of the GDP, analysts on Wednesday sharply cut their growth estimates and stressed on the need to announce an economic package. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which is scheduled to announce its first bi-monthly policy review on April 3, is set to deliver a deep rate cuts and it should also be assumed that the fiscal deficit targets will be breached, analysts said.
The Congress on Monday deferred the election to the post of party president till the COVID-19 situation improves and decided to set up a group to assess losses in the recent assembly polls, with party chief Sonia Gandhi saying it has to put its house in order by facing reality and drawing lessons from the 'serious setbacks'.
The media has created a new paradigm for its news perspective. It will write about issues that concern and directly affect its readers.It will also present news, whatever be its content or significance, provided that news is offered to it by the establishment, be it the state or the advertising community.
The analysis shows that when the number of infected becomes equal to those removed from circulation by recovery and death, the coefficient will reach the 100 per cent threshold and the epidemic will be "extinguished".
Using drones and remote-sensing equipment, rescue teams intensified efforts on Wednesday to reach the 25-35 men trapped in a sludge-choked tunnel since the Uttarakhand glacier disaster three days ago and more than 170 remained missing, hopes of finding them alive fading with every passing hour.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had informed that as per the preliminary report, the total damage due to floods in the state is estimated to be worth Rs 8,316 crore.
'It is perplexing to see the leader of the First World with a first rate medical infrastructure come up short on its foresight to handle the pandemic,' notes Group Captain Murli Menon (retd).
Moved by the plight of those affected by the natural calamity, Indian archer Rahul Banerjee immersed himself in relief work for victims of cyclone Amphan.
Nearly a decade after Kutch faced its worst-ever earthquake, rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt in a two-part series assesses the transformation witnessed in the Kutchi society since the time the calamity struck on January, 2001, and its implications.
Several states of the country are battling grim flood situations that have affected lakhs of people and have also resulted in loss of life and property.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday announced Rs 500 crore as a special package for rehabilitation of rain-affected victims in Maharashtra in addition to the Rs 200 crore from the National Contingency and National Calamity Funds.
However, the government rejected the army's demand to implement the scheme with retrospective effect from June last year, when the Doklam face-off between Indian and Chinese armies had begun, official sources said.
The Centre on Tuesday assured flood-ravaged Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh that funds will not be a constraint for relief and rehabilitation and asked them to focus on providing succour to the affected people.
Dharavi's success underlines the importance of community participation in any public health crisis.
What was the need to fictionalise a series on real events that were far more horrific because they were real? asks Vaihayasi Pande Daniel.
Commercial banks are also expected to be soft on loan repayments and restructure the loans, if not write them off.
State governments, which are striving to achieve 4 per cent growth in agriculture during the 11th Plan period (2007-12), have made a strong pitch for repayment of short-term loans by farmers in case of natural calamities at an interest rate of 7 per cent and not at the regular rate of over 10 per cent as fixed by banks.
The fund generated a lot of interest immediately after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced its formation of the fund in the last week of March after the COVID-19 outbreak and appealed for donations, prompting several private firms, government bodies and individuals, including celebrities, to donate money.
For the current generation, enchanted by the monarchy but unaware of its past, The Crown may well perform the role of a history textbook, notes Dhruv Munjal.
Politics came into play over the Uttarakhand floods as Narendra Modi ignored suggestions given by Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde that chief ministers should not visit the flood-hit region as it hampers rescue operations.
Facing the twin task of fighting the coronavirus pandemic today and building a better tomorrow, the world is experiencing a new Bretton Woods moment, IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva said
The Congress on Saturday sought to dismiss questions about Rahul Gandhi's absence from the country as well as his silence at a time when heavy rains have wrecked havoc in Uttarakhand.
Read the fine print carefully lest your claim gets rejected, advises Tarun Mathur.
Coronavirus is the biggest story of our lives and a billion plus people expect us to be around, watching, reporting, editing, recording this for posterity and blowing the whistle to draw attention to injustices and State failures, notes Shekhar Gupta.
The Supreme Court on Friday said "a calamity and disaster" as huge as the one witnessed in Jammu and Kashmir floods "deserves national response" and asked the Centre to apprise it on Monday on the urgent steps undertaken to accelerate rescue, relief and rehabilitation operations.
Former Uttarakhand Chief Minister B C Khanduri on Thursday asked the Centre to learn lessons from the recent natural calamity in the hill state and demanded a separate ministry for the Himalayan region to preserve its fragile ecology.
India on Sunday announced temporary suspension of e-visa facility for Chinese travellers and foreigners residing in the neighbouring country and issued a fresh advisory saying anyone with travel history to China since January 15 can be quarantined.
Flooding this monsoon underscores the need to buy home insurance, says Tarun Mathur.
With normal life thrown out of gear by the region's worst weather disasters, the authorities scrambled in various parts of the state to restore normalcy.
Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim, on his part, gave assurances that normalcy would be restored in a week, as government officials were working round the clock to improve the situation.
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