Facing an acute shortage of doctors at its rural health centres, the state government hopes that some of their work could be done by pharmacists instead. But public health advocates are not so sure.
Immunity conferred from natural infection and vaccines, patterns of social contact, and virus transmissibility will all play a role in what COVID-19 will look like as it continues to circulate.
Scheduled Tribes were marginalised even before Covid-19. Now, in Odisha's tribal districts, they face a worse reality. Livelihoods are vanishing, and health risks loom large.
Policy-makers are increasingly concerned about the potential impact of more waves of covid. High-frequency, night-time light data from last year's lockdown provides some answers.
For long-term mitigation of disasters in urban areas, ward-level citizens' committees will need to carry out community-based bottom-up planning for sustainable and inclusive development.
For some, the plight of countless desperately poor people trapped by the lockdown was a call to action. But for others, it was a time for unscrupulous opportunism and cruel discrimination.
All persons above the age of 18 can now be vaccinated against covid. On current course, there will be a much larger mismatch between demand and the ability of the system to push out doses.
The quality of the air in our cities is reducing the productivity of companies, and diminishing consumer demand. Businesses must advocate and support efforts to tackle this.
The pandemic's threat is determined by both the infectiousness of the virus strains and the level of caution that people exhibit. And new strains could keep emerging.
Hundreds of millions were caught off-guard by the lockdown. As the government struggled to respond, it was up to citizens to recognise the humanity of each other and do what they could.
The suddenness of the lockdown left poor people unable to prepare themselves. To survive, they had to leave their homes in search of support, making them vulnerable to more than the virus.
A new book by the World Bank urges all cities to implement explicit food policies to foster reliable, inclusive, competitive and healthy food systems aligned with their aspirations and challenges.
Start-ups and technology wizards put together the largest ever tele-medicine effort to fight Covid-19. India must use this start to create a National Health Digital Core, says Ramesh Menon.
Success in one initiative to strengthen public schooling can help reach some goals of other initiatives too. The Bal Sansad program in Uttar Pradesh shows how focusing on hygiene is improving attendance too.
A vocal community demanding its health rights through greater participation local governance is the key to long term change, and this may be finally starting to happen in a few places.
India Together is published with support from Oorvani Foundation.
