| | | | Good morning,
India's biodiversity is fast disappearing, and the time to slow down that decline is now, Flavia Lopes writes on World Environment Day, June 5. The government has conservation programmes but these concentrate on only certain species, while ignoring the rest, especially the smaller ones. These programmes also ignore communities that live closely with forests, whose involvement is necessary to keep ecosystems as they are. Read the story to know why India's biodiversity conservation is failing and what we need to do. | | | Ranvijay Singh set off to visit Primary Health Centres (PHCs) in Uttar Pradesh's Shravasti district, the district with the fewest centres in the state. What he found was appalling. Not only does Shravasti have 25 fewer PHCs than the Indian government norm, the PHCs that are there are subpar. Some don't have fans, others have erratic electricity, no road access, and yet others lack equipment for safe childbirth and clean water. Read the ground investigation here. | | | India should have conducted a new census in 2021, after the one in 2011. The Covid-19 pandemic delayed these plans, especially as government staff was involved in the response to the pandemic. But now as the economy and much else comes back to normal, why aren't pre-census activities beginning? Shreehari Paliath writes about the implications of a delayed census on social service and welfare delivery, and on surveys that give us information on India's consumption, employment and other key indicators. Like one expert told him: "There is frankly no alternative to the census for a country like India". | | | May 31 was World No-Tobacco Day. Our two stories give you an overview on tobacco use in India and policies for deterring tobacco use.
Tobacco kills 3,700 people every day in India and causes 27% of all cancer cases. And yet, taxation on tobacco in India is not up to the WHO's recommendations and it is not high enough to deter consumption, found Divyani Dubey, while analysing all credible data sources on tobacco and its dangers for Factchecker.in.
India has made strides in reducing tobacco use in adolescents but yet 9% consume it in some form. Harshul Gaba looks at the Global Youth Tobacco Survey and gives you details on tobacco use in this #Dataviz. | | | The central government, Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and several Union ministers, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have claimed over the past week that India had received the highest-ever Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow of $83.57 billion in FY 2021-22. When Isha Bajpai checked this claim for context, she found that foreign investments are not just limited to FDI inflow and that this number does not show the entire picture. Find out more, in the story. | | | Help us continue our revealing ground reporting, as well as our in depth look into data and data gaps, by donating to us. | | | Shreya Khaitan Senior Writer and Editor
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