Experts believe that under-reporting is likely to cause an underestimation of the spread of the disease.
Taking away free healthcare facilities, as recommended by the Aayog, would place a huge burden on the people, especially in rural areas, says Devanik Saha.
The World Bank has approved a $1.5 billion loan for the ambitious clean India campaign.
Describing the virus as "dhoort" and "bahurupia" in Hindi, Modi in an interaction with district magistrates and field officials also underlined concerns expressed in various quarters about the threats it poses to the youth and children.
India might be heading towards a "serious livelihood crisis" as the situation seems to be worse this time for the working class amid the COVID crisis and local restrictions by states already add up to something close to a nationwide lockdown, according to noted economist Jean Dreze. In an interview to PTI, he also said the government's target to make India a $5 trillion economy by 2024-25 was never a "feasible target" and was just to pander to the "super-power ambitions" of the Indian elite. About the impact of the second wave of COVID on the Indian economy, the eminent economist said the situation today is not very different from what it was around this time last year as far as working people are concerned.
The scheme, which would give Rs 6,000 to small farmers in a year or Rs 500 a month, will add more money to the account of these cultivators than the money he/she saves every month on an average.
Concerned by GDP slowdown and unrealistic tax targets, the economists urged Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to implement long-term structural steps like land and labour reforms. Warning against any off-Budget financing the economists said the government should prepare a statement of intent for its social, rural and welfare sector expenditure.
Apart from the chief minister and deputy chief minister, 13 cabinet and 10 ministers of state were allocated portfolios.
'Economic issues do not matter during elections; it is the emotional connect that helps swing votes.'
She said that despite government scheme and initiatives ranging from roads to agriculture, housing, scholarships to electricity benefiting lives of people, a false narrative was being created by the opposition that the government was working for cronies.
With India lagging behind on several human development indices including healthcare and education, the Union government's decision to up the spending on these sectors is a step in the right direction. However, much more needs to be done in the way of increasing accountability and arresting corruption if headway is to be made on these fronts, says Devanik Saha.
India's likely medium-term potential growth will almost certainly be markedly lower than that experienced in pre-pandemic years, warns Shankar Acharya, former chief economic advisor to the Government of India.
The BJP is not taking the AAP challenge lightly. Amit Shah has cautioned party insiders to ensure that AAP does not cross a vote share of 24%. He has always seen AAP as a much more significant challenge than the Congress, observes Ramesh Menon, author, Modi Demystified: The Making Of A Prime Minister.
'Everyone wants that doctors should fight from the frontlines of the pandemic, but there's no reaction from the government when they fall ill or even die because of it.'
Deane De Menezes hopes to reduce the awkwardness and stigma around menstruation.
The slowdown is especially pronounced in rural areas, which have suffered two consecutive dry years.
"Zero is an unlikely figure. The virus is mutating and it is difficult to predict it's future behaviour,
'If we vaccinate quickly, it could be pushed to January, February, and the longer it can be pushed, the smaller the wave is likely to be, because by that time vaccination will scale up.'
Portfolio sharing had turned out to be a thorny issue between the Congress and JD-S and was thrashed out after much haggling, with both parties announcing an agreement on June one.
'With the largest number of malnourished people on the planet, India is poised to be a nation that significantly under-performs as an economy.'
'In May 2020-2021, nearly 10 crores (100 million) lost jobs. 'Covid is not the reason for the present crisis. It aggravated the crisis.'
'It might get worse. We don't really know what is it that is resulting in the high value of R now.'
What do we know about India's devastating second wave, and can we assign responsibility for it?
'The current economic contraction is certainly due to the lockdowns as a response to the pandemic, which is an act of God.' 'Nobody has seen such a thing in the last 100 years.' 'Saying that this was an act of mismanagement is largely incorrect'
China on Friday said about 90 million couples will qualify to have a second child after it scrapped its controversial decades-old one-child policy, raising the number of people in the world's most populous nation to 1.45 billion by 2030.
A total of 16,960 cases of crime against women and children, including 2,568 rapes, have been reported in the last one year in Kerala.
It said the money supply recovered to its pre-demonetisation level in mid-2017 and is now increasing steadily, similar to the previous trend.
India lifted 271 million people out of poverty between 2006 and 2016, recording the fastest reductions in the multi-dimensional poverty index values during the period with strong improvements in areas such as "assets, cooking fuel, sanitation and nutrition," a report by the United Nations said.
Full list of the rejigged Union Council of Ministers
'The second wave was more virulent, more aggressive, more transmissible.'
'Open defecation kills more Indians than any terrorist organisation could, but turning that around will take communicating that all Indians are created equal and that continuing this practice is anti-national,' points out Rahul Jacob.
S Bhagyalakshmi, an AIDS counsellor, has been "living with the HIV virus for 20 years now." She is an inspiring example of how AIDS should not stop anyone from living a fulfilling life.
Women's share of work in these industries is over 50 per cent, yet they are paid much less than their male counterparts.
'Every disease has traits and we have found out that actually 99 per cent of people who have got COVID-19, should recover.'
The Rashtrapati Bhavan has come out with a communiqu announcing distribution of portfolios of the ministers sworn-in on Monday in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers:
On International Women's Day, seven successful women share their wishes and dreams for a perfect India.
The first step is to estimate the retirement corpus you would need and to compute the approximate amount you can set aside every month, says V Viswanand, Senior Director and Chief Operations Officer, Max Life Insurance
Hours after 21 ministers took the oath of office and became a part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ministry, speculation began on which minister would be handed which portfolio. However, all speculation ended after the list was announced.
New body to replace Plan panel might retain 40% of existing staff
'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'.'
