Procurement at the doorstep, direct income support and reaching out to farmers can help in easing farming operations at this crucial time.

The COVID-19 crisis has a potentially far-reaching, long-term negative impact on children around the world. One impact would be in the form of increase in child labour. The article urges for immediate action from the States to prevent children from lapsing into child labour.

The Union government”s move of releasing of Rs. 11,092 crore to States from the SDRF (State Disaster Risk Management Fund), which was due to them as per the recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission, is timely. But it needs to do more to supplement the resource needs of the state governments, and should provide similar financial support from the NDRMF for the states to respond to the pandemic.

In what the UN Women calls a shadow pandemic, unspent money from Nirbhaya Fund with the States must be repurposed to tackle the rising domestic abuse amid the lockdown which has been imposed to fight Covid-19 threat.

To keep agricultural markets operational while maintaining the norms of social distancing, FPOs can play a crucial role. These should be empowered with all support to ensure smooth operations of agricultural supply chains avoiding distressed sales during the lockdown period.

At a time when the Rabi crop is ready for harvest and the Kharif crop will be sown, quick and effective policy responses are required.

Budget 2020 does not address the financial and resource shortages affecting nutrition interventions in India, an analysis of budget data shows. Public provisioning for nutrition is important given the persistently high levels of malnutrition in India.

Substantial reduction in the education budget over the last five years has reduced allocations for scholarships given to students from marginalised communities, affecting their ability to stay in the education system, shows an analysis of government data between 2015-16 and 2019-20.

There is no denying that the global financial system is broken. A recent report by UNESCAP shows that income inequality has grown in almost 40 percent of all Asia-Pacific countries, coinciding with an increased concentration of wealth. Massive levels of economic inequality in Asia-Pacific have exacerbated pre-existing social divides by disproportionately impacting marginalized communities in the region.

The 74^th session of United Nations General Assembly concluded on September 30, 2019. This year, calls were made for a Green New Deal to mitigate climate and inequality emergencies. Amid rising socioeconomic inequality and populism across the globe, an underlying issue that missed everyone’s attention is the growing phenomenon of illicit financial flows (or IFFs).

The Health Index, titled Healthy States, Progressive India, published some time ago, presents an assessment of states and Union Territories, based on their health performance.

In the 2014 general elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s manifesto promised a new education policy that would “meet the changing dynamics of the population’s requirement…”. After five years, on June 1, the Dr K. Kasturirangan Committee submitted a draft of the New Education Policy (NEP), 2019 to the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD).