Governance

Mumbai's handling of the pandemic has earned accolades from several quarters, including from India's Supreme Court, which suggested that New Delhi emulate Mumbai civic body’s response to COVI19.  In the second wave of the pandemic, which in Mumbai started on February 10 and showed up on its dashboard on Feb 11th, registered a mortality rate of 0.4% (until April 30).  BMC Commissioner Iqbal Chahal claims that this could be one of the lowest mortality rates in any city in the world.  Mumbai  has registered 14,574 deaths till May 22, 2021 since the onset of the COVID19 last year. COVID19 fatalities…

Karnataka’s Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), the scientific adviser to the government on COVID management, had predicted a second wave in January and February of 2021. While the TAC’s prediction was off by a couple of months--in UK and USA, the second wave had wreaked havoc in the final months of 2020--they did forewarn the State government that a faster spreading and more debilitating second wave of the pandemic was just waiting to happen. And it did. In the end April 2021, the State was clocking approximately 50,000 cases per day with capital Bengaluru alone averaging 20,000 cases per day.    The…

When the rest of the country was grappling with the highly virulent COVID second wave in March-April, the Jammu and Kashmir government was busy with preparations to host a mega-Tulip festival at Asia’s largest Tulip garden in Srinagar. Scheduled for six days starting April 3rd, thousands of local residents, tourists and officials thronged the garden on the inaugural day. The event was jointly inaugurated by J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and Kerala Governor Arif Muhammad Khan. Prime Minister Narendera Modi was the festival’s brand ambassador. Prior to the official inauguration, Modi had tweeted: “……..The garden will see over 15 lakh…

In the first part of our conversation with Dr Anant Bhan, Bhopal-based researcher in Global Health, Bioethics, and Health Policy, we asked him some of the common questions that citizens are grappling with today in the face of a stark vaccine shortage, coupled with frequent changes in policy. Continuing the conversation, we look at the overall data sufficiency on vaccines, the disease itself and its overall implication for the management of the pandemic. Edited excerpts below; for the entire unabridged conversation, scroll down to find the video link: Veering to the big picture, just weeks back, we had hundreds of…

Singara Chennai. The capital of Tamil Nadu and a hub of automobile and electronic hardware industries. A city that is often labelled as India’s health capital with several multi speciality government and private hospitals. And yet, there remains a lot to be done to fulfill the expectations and aspirations of its citizens. The recent elections saw the DMK come to power in the state, clinching every seat in the city. In its earlier stints, the DMK government had been behind several projects that are key landmarks in the city today: the multi-level flyover at Kathipara, the largest cloverleaf flyover in Asia,…

Booking a slot on the CoWin app is like participating in a lucky draw. The online slots get taken in seconds. This poses a challenge for people who do not have access to technology and/or don’t know how to check social media for the booking timings. Every day after 6 pm, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), tweets on its Twitter handle (@mybmc) the approximate time of the slots to be opened for next day’s appointment. But not even digitally savvy people manage to book appointments. “I have been trying to get the first dose appointment slots for my mom and…

Each time a survey, however small or flawed it is, places Bengaluru on top of its list, you can be rest assured that the government will paste full-page advertisements in papers, of its leaders claiming credit for it. Wonder why there is complete silence when Bengaluru became the city with the most active COVID cases not just in India, but across the world. After all, the political establishment has perhaps contributed more to Bengaluru’s horrifying COVID scenario than it has in the city being ‘the most liveable’, ‘most dynamic’ or for being the start-up capital.  At crematoria, at hospitals, in…

With the announcement of the results of the state assembly elections 2021, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam has returned to power in Tamil Nadu after a gap of ten years. The DMK continues its stronghold over many parts of Chennai, even reclaiming constituencies such as Mylapore where it had not won in two decades.However, elections results are just a starting point for citizens, not an end. We must hold our elected representatives accountable throughout their tenure. Who is your new MLA? What are his credentials? What are the issues he needs to address? Here is a list of all the winners…

The Maharashtra government’s handling of the 2021 lockdown holds lessons for students of public policy about how a simple tweak in government attitude and policy could prevent so many tragedies and prove beneficial for so many. In April 2020, the sudden closure of rail services and public transport forced migrant workers in many states to flee on trucks, cycles, cement mixers and on foot for hundreds of kilometers back to their villages facing death, starvation and suffering.  Forced by the public outcry, the railways did start Shramik trains. But the 4621 Shramik trains that ferried 63 lakh passengers in 2020-21…

A group of individuals and members of civil society organisations including Whitefield Rising, Bangalore Apartment Federation, and Sochara, have written to the Karnataka Chief Minister, BS Yediyurappa, highlighting major issues in COVID Management, with suggestions and asks for immediate steps. Here's the letter Dear Shri Yediyurappa, Bengaluru urban and rural is in an extremely serious state with a large number of COVID patients in need of medical resources, from hospital beds, to oxygen infrastructure to ICUs and ventilators. Volunteers and family members of patients are making desperate calls and sending messages to find sources to help those in need. We…