Dear Reader,

Far away from the epicentre of the fierce slugfest on the farm laws, there is innovation afoot in Indian agriculture. A group of paddy farmers in Tamil Nadu have signed up for a ‘red revolution’ - growing chilli instead of the traditional paddy crop – with prices and buying being underwritten by a private company vested in sustainable farming. As ThePrint reports, this will not only wean farmers away from water-guzzling paddy but also raise their incomes enormously. Though still a nascent movement, it is being called the “next generation of innovation” in Indian farming.

However, The India Forum argues that the aftermath of the deregulation in the dairy sector offers a glimpse into the consequences that would follow if the farm laws are implemented. After deregulation, the dairy sector has seen the eclipse of the small and medium farmer with 5.25 million of them pushed out of dairying between the years 2000 and 2016. Additionally, large agri-business corporates have monopolised the market, injected inequities in consumption patterns and disrupted the ecology.

Is India ready to tackle the vicious second wave of the pandemic? Down to Earth explores the state of affairs and concludes that while over the past year there has been a significant uptick in the absolute numbers of medical equipment like oxygen-supported beds, ventilators, etc., it pales against the burden that the states are called upon to bear in the second wave. India’s spend on healthcare is woefully and shockingly inadequate, the report concludes.

When the pandemic struck and the lockdown began, there were geographies which were not covered by mainstream media, and access to information was scarce for these citizens. As The Bastion records, it was the community and hyperlocal media which stepped in and used radio, WhatsApp groups, and even recorded messages, to relay information about relief schemes and their entitlements. These ‘media’ also recorded the plight of the voiceless and brought it to the attention of local administration and civil society groups for redressal.

And, while the focus is on West Bengal, Live History India looks at the young science teacher from Kolkata, Satyendra Nath Bose, who in the 1920s took a quantum leap of faith in reaching out to Nobel Laureate Albert Einstein for having his research paper published. Later, Bose in collaboration with Einstein, did seminal work, the Bose-Einstein Statistics – a set of mathematical rules that described the behaviour of certain particles – which were christened the ‘Boson particle’ in honour of Bose. This breakthrough in quantum physics was a scientific milestone.

For a selection of stories from our grantees this week, please read on.

Warmly,

Sunil Rajshekhar
IPSMF