'People are getting admitted to hospital two to three days before their death in a very serious respiratory compromise state and they are passing away within 48 hours.' 'Those who are coming early in the disease, the minute they are suspicious that they have COVID-19, the recovery rate has been much, much, higher.' 'The moral of the story is: We must destigmatise COVID-19.' 'People should be told: 'Look, if you have anything like this, please come immediately'.'
International travel guide Lonely Planet has just released its list of top ten cities to visit next year. And Chennai made the cut!
'As an aspirational district, one of the main challenges is health and nutrition of the tribal community.' 'They are 1.5 lakhs to 1.6 lakhs tribals in this district.' 'The major issue among tribals is malnutrition and anaemia.'
Auroville just turned 50. Aurovilians who grew up in The experimental city speak of how their childhood was marked by a sense of openness and possibility.
'They (students) were born in a borderless world, a world of the internet and a deep-seated belief that they could live and work anywhere they wished.'
'It is time to not merely assert that Kashmir is an internal problem, but begin to act on it,' argues Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
India is failing to take advantage of its important ally, Japan as much as it should, notes Mihir S Sharma.
Lack of sanitation is leading to avoidable deaths of infants, and underweight and stunted children.
TTV Dhinakaran's call to the Congress to break up with the DMK and tie up with him, is aimed at consolidating the traditional anti-BJP votes. The stronger message is to all anti-BJP constituencies in the state, especially the minorities and traditionally aligned sections of the Dalit community, that he could be trusted to take forward an 'anti-Hindutva' agenda more seriously than anyone else, the DMK included, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
While Congress-ruled states such as Kerala, Karnataka and Assam expressed fears about the sudden demise of the planning process and wondered what it would be replaced with, also worrying about the immediate implications on annual Plan outlays, Andhra Pradesh said it was considering setting up its own NITI Aayog.
'Although strong arm tactics do cause inconvenience, they have not been able to stop us from carrying out our campaigns.' 'Allegations about being 'anti-development' mean very little when people in the country are still going hungry.' Greenpeace India chief Ravi Chellam on the challenges ahead.
The average land given to the rural landless is small and falling, from 0.95 acres in 2002 to 0.88 acres in 2015 - a 7.4 per cent drop over 13 years-and a slowdown is evident in the process of taking land away from rich landlords, the RTI data reveal.
There are many collateral advantages of taking the tough decision.
Ravichandran Ashwin loves a good fight and that's the reason he is more excited than intimidated at the prospect of challenging the ever aggressive Chris Gayle against the West Indies in their cricket World Cup match in Perth on Friday.
'It's the communication, both of us have been playing Test cricket for a long time. Especially me and him -- we are playing (only) this format particularly and we have spent a lot time not just on field by talking about this format' 'To be very honest I was hoping to get a double hundred. They had so many runs on board. I thought it will help the team if I could get a double hundred'
The extended Winter session of Parliament got off a stormy start on Wednesday with uproar over the Telangana and caste-reservation issue stalling proceedings.
Awful religious practices need to be abolished. But through social and political reformers, not by courts, argues Shekhar Gupta.
Building toilets, however essential, must not be confused with sanitation and the crying need for a revamp of India's sewage systems.
S Saraswathi profiles the trauma faced by two families in the Chennai floods.
Three recent initiatives kicked off with renewed vigour to improve governance were actually started, perhaps in a different format by the UPA government.
'Extravagant new promises can buy him time, but far from solving the problem, they compound the risk.' 'His main alternative is to stress not aspirations, but resentments.' 'He has already de-emphasised aspirational appeals: Nothing has been heard for over two years of the coming of achhe din,' points out James Manor.
Higher crude oil prices also translate into better corporate earnings for India's top companies
'What do you think the Congress is today?' 'Is it a political party heading for a life-and-death battle?' 'Or an NGO, just doing its thing and hoping it will improve the state of the world?' asks Shekhar Gupta.
Economic reforms seem to be on a slow train, while good old fiscal populism is alive and flourishing.
Chennai born Meera Mitun landed her first modelling break when she least expected it.
Opposition parties now recognise that the king on one side of the chessboard, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is ensconced, and unlikely to be shaken, although on his side there are no identifiable kings, queens, rooks, bishops or knights.
An interview with Amit Mitra, the finance minister of West Bengal.
A Ganesh Nadar meets Daniston Litten, a sailor from India, who was held captive by Somali pirates for four years. While the pirates may have harmed him physically, his spirit is unbroken.
'This prime minister thinks he knows everything.' 'He has to consult, he has to talk and he has to mobilise the best people, but having seen him function, I have no expectations from him.'
To ensure equal access to health care, the government must consider it in a holistic manner and improve all parameters.
The farming community expects much more substance from the government, Ajay Vir Jakhar.
'Essentially there are three things the government should be doing: Identify who you are going to get your vaccine from, figure out how you are going to pay for it, and figure out how you're going to deliver it and to whom.'
Shikhar Dhawan was all guts and grit while negotiating tough conditions in his comeback game as he boosted Delhi's morale with a well-controlled 137 against Hyderabad in their Ranji Trophy Group A match in New Delhi. A round up of Day 1 of the Ranji Trophy matches played on Wednesday.
Instructions from the Union rural development ministry to the state officials on the WhatsApp group show that the chat was also used as an off-record avenue for the Union government to pass instructions, which it could not have done through formal channels, keeping the law in mind.
Perhaps half-way through India's demographic transition, what is the outlook for the future?
There are conflicting signs on India's investment cycle.
Amethi's member of Parliament failed to use his first formal television interview to reach out to the people in general and the electorate in particular ahead of the crucial elections in which the Congress has already been written off by opinion polls and surveys. He did little to change that impression by failing to exploit the platform provided to him.
India became the first team to qualify for the semi-finals of the ICC World Twenty20 after a thumping eight-wicket victory over Bangladesh in a Group 2 match, in Mirpur, on Friday. After restricting the hosts to 138 for 7, courtesy yet another dominating performance by the spinners, their batsmen hit up the required runs easily, with nine balls to spare.
'We have about Rs 4 lakh crore debt on a state budget of about Rs 1.5 lakh crore.' 'We are in a debt two-and-a-half times our annual budget,' says the banker who would have been Tamil Nadu's finance minister had the DMK won.