The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) had released a Draft Notification on Environment Impact Assessment 2020 (EIA Notification 2020) on 12 March 2020, on the eve of the world’s largest nationwide lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and had called for responses in the next 60 days. This time period is scheduled to expire next week on 11 May 2020. EIA Notification 2020 is to replace and supersede EIA Notification 2006 and the many amendments issued since then.

THE basic cause of the mass upsurge of the Worlis lay in their abominable condition of wretchedness and their suppression by the tyrant landlords. They had rotted in these conditions for over a century – conditions they had thoroughly hated, but fear and helplessness suppressed their raging fire. They lived with bitter despair and were anxious to end their slavery, but did not know how to do it. The entry of Kisan Sabha led by the communists filled this gap.

MUMBAI, the financial, commercial and entertainment nerve centre of India, has been under serious distress because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mumbai generates 33 per cent of the country’s income tax, 60 per cent of custom duty, 20 per cent of central excise duty, and 40 per cent of the foreign trade, 25 per cent of industrial output, 70 per cent of capital formation, 10 per cent of factory employment. The city is one of the top 10 centres of global financial flow, contributing over 6 per cent of India’s GDP. Large numbers of financial institutions have their head office in Mumbai

The nationwide lockdown has been extended by another two weeks. The problems that emerged since the beginning of the lockdown and the difficulties being faced by crores of Indian people particularly the migrant workers, the daily labourers and the poor who are unable to survive will continue to deepen.

AS Covid-19 cases increase in the country, there has been an alarming rise in the number of frontline workers getting infected with the deadly virus, mainly due to the lack of safety gears. At least four senior doctors have reportedly died so far due to the novel coronavirus. Nurses and other hospital employees, including sanitation workers at the bottom of the hierarchy, who are more prone to infection are getting infected in large scale. Many hospitals had to be closed.