Budget 2021: Fine print shows little real increase in health allocation despite Covid-19
The government has combined many existing heads such as water and sanitation under the 2021-’22 health budget. Representational image. | Arun Sankar/AFP
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman
announced a new healthcare scheme – the Pradhan Mantri Atma Nirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana – with a Rs 64,180-crore outlay. The Centre’s allocation to the health ministry for 2020-’21 was Rs 67,112 crore. This new scheme appears to make a 100% increase in the entire health allocation.
However, Sitharaman also said that this would be operationalised over six years. And the detailed
Budget document does not have any mention of this scheme for 2021-’22. So it is unclear how much of this money would make its way into any health spending this year.
Bergman) To address the learning crisis, which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, approaches that can cost-effectively improve learning on a global scale are needed. The COVID-19 outbreak caused education systems around the world to halt in-person learning. In Botswana, schools across the country were closed from March to June 2020; shortly after reopening, a new wave of COVID-19 cases prompted a subsequent school closure, with similar waves of reopening and closing expected, and a double-shift system in place as of July 2020. Despite the government s efforts to keep students engaged through learning programmes on national television and radio stations, families have expressed demands for additional remote educational activities for their children. However, in Botswana as elsewhere, the pandemic has laid bare existing educational inequalities, with high-income families having access to alternative sources of instruction (e.g., computers and smartphones) that are out
By |
February 1, 2021
Last September, India was confirming nearly 100,000 new coronavirus cases a day. It was on track to overtake the United States to become the country with the highest reported COVID-19 caseload in the world. Hospitals were full. The Indian economy nosedived into an unprecedented recession.
But four months later, India’s coronavirus numbers have plummeted. Late last month, on Jan. 26, the country’s Health Ministry confirmed a record low of about 9,100 new cases – in a country of nearly 1.4 billion people. It was India’s lowest daily tally in eight months. On Monday, India confirmed about 11,000 cases.
“It’s not that India is testing less, or things are going underreported,” says Jishnu Das, a health economist at Georgetown University. “It’s been rising, rising and now suddenly, it’s vanished! I mean, hospital ICU utilization has gone down. Every indicator says the numbers are down.”
Sanchit Khanna/Hindustan Times via Getty Images
hide caption
toggle caption Sanchit Khanna/Hindustan Times via Getty Images
A mural in New Delhi is part of public health messaging in India. The country has seen a dramatic decline in new cases since the fall, but researchers aren t sure why. Sanchit Khanna/Hindustan Times via Getty Images
Last September, India was confirming nearly 100,000 new coronavirus cases a day. It was on track to overtake the United States to become the country with the highest reported COVID-19 caseload in the world. Hospitals were full. The Indian economy nosedived into an unprecedented recession.
Congress takes BJP government to task on Assam issues
The present BJP-led coalition government in Assam has failed in several sectors.
STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: The present BJP-led coalition government in Assam has failed in several sectors. There is a complete mismanagement in the State. Assam now ranks at the second or third position from below in various parameters of performances set by the Centre. This was stated by Prof. Gourav Vallabh, AICC spokesperson while addressing the media in Rajiv Bhawan here on Saturday.
Buttressing his claims, the Congress leader alleged, What has happened to the BJP s vision document. It was full of promises; but the leaders failed to fulfil them. Their leaders have resorted to lies and deceit to whitewash their actions of misgovernance and paint a fair picture of their inactions.