Opinion

Amarendra Das The COVID-19 pandemic has posed serious fiscal challenges before the Union and state governments. Keeping in view the slowdown of GDP/GSDP growth rates, states were ready to embrace a significant revenue contraction and explore ways to finance a large deficit. In order to...

Sanna Marin Climate change and biodiversity loss are the most pressing challenges of our time, so all responsible political leaders must offer long-term policies for confronting them effectively. We need clear strategies based on achievable targets, and we must be bold in deploying all means...

Malay Mishra On the 12th May, 12 Opposition parties led by the Congress wrote a joint letter to the PM. Among their major demands were: free and universal vaccination against Covid-19; invoking compulsory licensing to ramp up domestic production of vaccines; utilisation of budgeted allocation...

Binay Panda The discussion on the laboratory origin of the COVID-19 virus has re-surfaced and this time with support from many well-known scientists. Why are scientists so ambivalent about the source of the virus? Before we begin, let’s start with the basics. COVID-19 is a...

Bhaskar Nath Biswal Sustainability reporting is gaining momentum worldwide as a significant communication tool for corporate entities to disclose their sustainability plans, concerns and performance to achieve confidence of stakeholders. Although Indian regulatory authorities issued guidelines from time to time, the norms are still not...

Heidi J. Larson Hugging your parents. Meeting your grandchild for the first time. Laughing with friends – in person! COVID-19 vaccines promise to bring us closer to our loved ones and enjoy the sort of moments we have missed over the past 14 months. The...

Bruhaspati Samal The Government of Odisha released a fresh list of frontline workers for Covid-19 vaccinations on May 13, 2021. The list includes forest department staff, bank/insurance staff, ATM maintenance staff, staff of logistic companies, railway staff, child care institutions’ staff, oxygen plant employees, filling...

Aditya Pratap Swain About 18 months back when coronavirus engulfed the entire world, we were celebrating ‘Namaste Trump’ and when the world was awash with the second wave of Covid-19 we were celebrating the ‘Dance of Democracy’ and Kumbh Mela. When the Union Health Minister...

Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg The surge of Covid-19 cases and deaths in India shows that the pandemic is far from over. While most developing countries in Asia and Africa managed to keep their death tolls low over the past year, it is only a matter of...

Palitha Abeykoon, Maha El Rabbat & David Nabarro As special envoys on COVID-19 for the director-general of the World Health Organization, we have witnessed firsthand the intensity of the suffering caused by the pandemic, especially in poorer communities. This profound tragedy has been evolving before...