Karishma Mehrotra

Dr Anthony S Fauci, chief medical advisor to the Biden Administration and who has worked with seven US Presidents, spoke exclusively to The Indian Express on Friday from the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

The survey, which will be released online Wednesday, shows that only 45 per cent of female migrants returned to their urban workplaces -- 40 per cent of them earned no income across a week in which they were tracked in February 2021.

According to Brown University School of Public Health Ashish Jha, the US is “sitting on 35-40 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine Americans will never use”.

The US pledged to cut emissions by 50 to 52 per cent of its 2005 levels by 2030. This is double the 2015 goal set by former President Barack Obama.

States such as Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Bihar, which were overwhelmed by the massive numbers of returnees last year, are hoping to be able to handle a similar situation better.

While there is no such official nationwide data, experts note that the migration back to workplaces since the end of the first lockdown has been increasingly single, male migration, leaving families behind.

As many as 12 Opposition parties in Rajya Sabha and nine in Lok Sabha opposed the Bill.

The working group includes Joint Secretaries of the Financial Action Task Force division of Department of Economic Affairs as well as the Counter Terrorism and Counter Radicalisation Division/Combating of Funding of Terrorist Cell in the Ministry of Home Affairs.

“The pandemic has taught us that risk is not confined. Risk ripples across sectors and geographies. We have to address the notion of systemic risk as opposed to silos of different hazards," said National Disaster Management Authority member Kamal Kishore.

The Opposition demanded that the Bill be sent to a select committee. Congress MP Digvijaya Singh moved a motion to do so.

Mallikarjun Khare, Leader of the Opposition, asked why this was brought up only before the Assembly elections in the state.

Moving the The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order (Amendment) Bill, 2021, Minister for Social Justice Empowerment Thawarchand Gehlot said seven sub-castes would be encompassed under Devendrakula Vellalar with the exclusion of the Kadian community in certain listed districts.

Sitharaman said, “Assembly elections can only be held after the process of delimitation is completed and the decision to hold elections lies with the EC.”

In response to a question in Rajya Sabha, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has given a state-wise breakdown of houses sanctioned under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U) slum redevelopment vertical.

The Ease of Living Index, according to the government, is an assessment tool that evaluates the quality of life and impact of various initiatives for urban development.

Municipal planning has also been highlighted by the report as having "fallen short".

India’s score decreased from 71 to 67, with 100 being the ranking for the most free country, and its rank fell from 83 to 88 out of 211 countries

The second phase of the SBM, announced in the Union Budget, will be responsible for sewage management in all cities that have less than 1 lakh population.

In a letter to public sector banks, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has noted that “sanctions and disbursements” of loans for street vendors, as part of a scheme instituted during the Covid-19 lockdown last year, have “slowed down”.

A NITI Aayog policy draft has proposed the contours of a national policy on migrant workers. Several key recommendations in the draft can be compared to a government working group report from 2017.

Last year’s migrant crisis sent 10 million labourers home, according to numbers provided to Parliament by Santosh Gangwar, Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Labour and Employment.

A Pey Jal Survekshan will determine the distribution of water, wastewater, and water bodies in 10 cities: Patiala, Rohtak, Churu, Agra, Surat, Badlapur, Bhubaneswar, Tumkur, Kochi and Madurai. Five of these cities are water-scarce and five are water abundant.

The online survey, conducted in September 2020 by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Pennsylvania, covered 1,200 Indian American adult residents.

The group, that includes members from each of the ministries, held its first meeting in late December and is considering a blueprint on a 'United Platform for Skill Development and Employment Ecosystem'.