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More than 3.5 lakh new Covid-positive cases and over 3,000 deaths every day for the past week, the latter largely underestimated. Desperate patients breathing their last while waiting for hospital beds or oxygen supply. Pyres of dead bodies piling up while the ashes from the ones just cremated still burn. Helpless cries everywhere, from streets to social media in search of beds, plasma, medicine and oxygen cylinders. India’s public health infrastructure has collapsed, or rather been exposed, in the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Every day, we take a step further into this Covid catastrophe. India’s gut-wrenching tragedy is for the world to see. The world weeps for us, with us, as thousands of Indians succumb to a man-made tragedy that could have easily been prevented. A tragedy that unfolded under the watch of an arrogant, jingoistic, and complacent government, which was busy indulging in hyper-nationalism while its citizens gasped for breath.
Imran Khan to âhurricaneâ Firdous â two street visits to show Pakistan govt at work
Pakistani politicians from all parties have used the Ramzan month for PR activity in the past. But only Imran Khan govt has managed to pull off such a self-contradictory show.
Naila Inayat 6 May, 2021 12:42 pm IST Text Size:
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Last year, this time, we were discussing the storm that was âcolonel ki biwiâ. This year, we have âhurricaneâ Firdous taking over the reins of Pakistani peopleâs attention.
It so happened that the adviser to the chief minister of Punjab, Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, while visiting a special Ramzan bazaar in Sialkot, reprimanded an assistant commissioner over the âpoorâ quality of some fruits at a shop. Firdous lost her temper, not the first time though, questioning the official, Sonia Sadaf, about the âthird-class fruitâ put up on sale. â
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India is in the middle of its second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. Our social media feeds have morphed into SOS helplines with citizens running from pillar to post to arrange medicines and oxygen cylinders. Amid this, the pack of foreign correspondents and their desi counterparts, who in the first wave couldn’t explain India’s low death rates, have made a triumphant comeback, with many of them claiming that India is grossly underreporting its Covid-19 death numbers now.
As per John Burn-Murdoch of the
Financial Times, who put together data for seven districts through news reports, the “numbers of Covid victims who have been cremated are 10x larger than official Covid death counts in same areas.”
Indiaâs energy transition path is on track. Now it needs to pick pace: Analysis
The ongoing Covid-19 recovery efforts offer five key lessons, and also reveal some blind spots that can potentially undermine the hard-earned progress. Text Size:
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The global energy transition has crossed many milestones over the past decade, surpassing most expectations. Thanks to technological innovation, entrepreneurship and risk-taking by policymakers and businesses, the installed capacity grew sevenfold for solar PV, and threefold for onshore wind since 2010. Once considered a pipe dream, the share of renewable energy in the electricity mix is higher than fossil fuels in some countries. But, there is still a long way to go. Analysis from a decade of benchmarking data from the World Economic Forum’s Energy Transition Index 2021 indicates that only 10 per cent of the 115 countries analysed maintained a steady upward trajectory toward energy transition. India ranks 87th on the index.
On Afghanistan, Indiaâs worry shouldnât just be Pakistan. Thereâs a rogue player waiting
General Bipin Rawat recently said Iran and Pakistan could exploit the situation in Afghanistan after the US pullout. But he made it clear they weren t the only ones.
Snehesh Alex Philip 23 April, 2021 11:41 am IST Text Size:
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A lot of key changes are taking place in the South Asian region, which has both direct and indirect bearing on not only Indiaâs national security but also strategic interests in the long run.
One such development is the Afghan peace process and the US decision to withdraw all of its remaining troops from the war-torn country by 11 September, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, which led to their intervention in Afghanistan in search for al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.