NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 20  (IANS): Seventy-eight per cent MSMEs and startups in India have reduced workforce in the last 8 months since the Covid-19 pandemic broke out. As per a survey by LocalCircles, only 22 per cent startups and MSMEs have the same or increased workforce as compared to the pre-Covid levels. India's startups and MSMEs ecosystem went through a torrid time due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the following lockdown. With revenues and operations getting impacted

Using more underground water could ease water shortages - but coordination of an "invisible" resource remains a challenge LONDON, October 20 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - As growing populations and accelerating climate change worsen water scarcity around the world, pumping more from underground could help fill the gap in poorer nations - but only if supplies are better charted and they are used wisely, researchers said. "It's a resource with a huge amount of p

New Delhi, October 18 (IANSlife): Indias public health and nutrition efforts are differentiated by an enterprising early start going as far back as 1975 with the beginning of Anganwadi centres and Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS). Lauding this strong, continued focus on maternal and child nutrition, experts specialising in India's nutrition space prescribe integration of three key factors like quality of services, convergence of healthcare services at the household leve

The risks of a "spillover" of deadly pathogens into people is growing as deforestation and fires put animals on the move, researchers warn SAO PAULO, October 16 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - As farms expand into the Amazon rainforest, felled trees and expanding pastures may open the way for new Brazilian exports beyond beef and soybeans, researchers say: pandemic diseases. Changes in the Amazon are driving displaced species of animals, from bats to monkeys to mosquitoe

New Delhi, October 15 (IANS): Mahatma Gandhi was a finicky master choreographer of his own image, dismissed most works of art around him as lacking a soul, was not a patient or good "sitter", and thus an "indifferent muse". And yet, artists were repeatedly drawn to him, says noted Indian-American Indologist Sumathi Ramaswamy in a path-breaking book that chronicles the manner in which artists have portrayed the Father of the Nation for more than a century. Gandhi

BY DIVYANG ARORA IANS  | October 14 Entrepreneurship through Acquisition, also known colloquially as the Search Fund, is an emerging avenue through which aspiring entrepreneurs can quickly give shape to their entrepreneurial spirit leveraging their own managerial abilities. What is it? The Stanford Center for Entrepreneurial Studies defines search fund as "An investment vehicle through which investors financially support an entrepreneur's efforts to locate, acqu

BY K. YATISH RAJAWAT IANS | October 13 Indian state governments have market loans (SDLs), borrowings of Rs 1.93 lakh crore so far this year, this is 76 per cent higher than the corresponding period last year. This rise is already sitting on leverage balance sheet of states, especially states like Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra. Uttar Pradesh had an outstanding debt of around Rs 6 lakh crore while Maharashtra had a debt of Rs 5 lakh crore. Will they be able to cross the river of d

As climate change-related disasters soar, a failure to act to prevent them is an act of 'wilful' negligence, the UN's disaster chief says BARCELONA, October 12 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A jump in climate-related disasters this century, along with the global coronavirus pandemic, show political and business leaders are failing to stop the planet turning into "an uninhabitable hell" for millions, the United Nations said on Monday. The last two decades saw

New Delhi, October 11 (IANSlife): On the occasion of World Mental Health Day, October 10, 2020, social media platforms Headspace and Snap Inc. teamed up in order to practice meditation and mindfulness exercises, to address rising levels of stress among Snapchatters across the country Headspace, a global leader in meditation and mindfulness, and Snap Inc. announced the release of two new meditations featured in the Headspace Mini, a safe space for friends on Snapchat. The two new med

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg is an inspiration for Samela Sateré-Mawe, but more so are her roots in Amazon indigenous culture MANAUS, Brazil, October 10 (Reuters) - Samela Sateré-Mawé, a 24-year-old biology student, has one guiding belief - if the rainforest dies so will her Amazon tribe. "Indigenous people are an extension of nature, and nature is an extension of us," said the environmental activist, who joined Greta Thunberg's Fridays for F

New Delhi, October 9 (PTI): India has got the second set of Swiss bank account details of its nationals and entities under the automatic exchange of information pact with Switzerland, marking a key milestone in the government's fight against black money allegedly stashed abroad. India is among the 86 countries with which Switzerland's Federal Tax Administration (FTA) has exchanged information on financial accounts within the framework of global standards on AEOI this year.

Pinjore (Haryana), October 8 (IANS) After years of grit and determination, eight critically endangered white-rumped vultures, six of them captive-bred, were reintroduced into the wild on Thursday for the first time in India since the vulture conservation and breeding centre was set up in the lower Shivaliks near here in September 2001. For biologists, the release of the vultures is a landmark occasion after January 2007 when the first white-rumped chick was born in captivity in

ABUJA, October 6 (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of men, women and children with mental health conditions are living chained up in roughly 60 countries, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday. Without mental health support or awareness, families or institutions often shackle people against their will, leaving them eating, sleeping, urinating and defecating in one small space, the rights watchdog said in a report. In the run-up to World Mental Health Day on Oct. 10, Human Rights Wat

BY SAEED NAQVI IANS | October 5 Jaswant Singh's final goodbye acquired extra poignancy. Ushered into his study in my mind's eye by the reliable Thomas, his secretary, I can see him induce a smile by way of politeness, gesture with his right hand, slowly nodding his head disapprovingly. He would have been pained at the Hathras rape and a blanket "not guilty" verdict on all and sundry accused in the Babri Masjid demolition conspiracy case. He was a gentleman politic

BY MAJOR GENERAL (RETD) S.B. ASTHANA IANS | October 4 The current China-India standoff in Eastern Ladakh has seen multiple rounds of talks failing to ease tensions, with continued troop build-up under the shadow of talks. While negotiations roll over to the seventh military-level talks amidst an environment of deep mistrust, there is very little hope that the promise of not sending additional troops to the borders will get implemented, despite logistics during winters making stando

New Delhi, October 3 (IANS) : For over a month soldiers are perched on peaks rising to 17000 ft as a turn-around of all troops is yet to happen because of the terrain and logistics. On August 29, in a sudden stealth operation carried out mostly under the cover of darkness, India occupied critical heights and mountain passes along the South Bank of the Pangong Tso, a glacial lake at 16000 ft. Winter is approaching and the battle of nerves along the disputed border is fast turning int

London, October 2 (IANS): As many as 800 million children have dangerously high lead values in their blood. The neurotoxin can cause permanent brain damage, warn researchers. The huge international numbers come from a new report from Pure Earth and UNICEF. Pure Earth works to solve pollution problems that can be harmful to humans. "A child's earliest years of life are characterized by rapid growth and brain development. This makes children particularly vulnerable to h

BY VISHNU MAKHIJANI New Delhi, October 1 (IANS): When Raja Rao's biography of Mahatma Gandhi was published in 1998, it was seen as a coming together of two great minds. That it continues to be so today, a quarter-century later, is a testament to the originality of its narrative in the Puranic style of storytelling - "an experiment in honesty" as the author himself had put it "I am convinced that the time is ripe to offer this and other Raja Rao works to a disc

New Delhi, September 29 (IANS): The Soviets used an Indian newspaper in 1983 to spread disinformation that the AIDS virus had been invented by the US military as a "biological weapon to kill black and gay men" and this echoed for decades. There's greater sophistication today, says a new book on the threat to democracy and personal liberty from fake news generated by Advanced AI technology, with Russia fine-tuning the concept in this age of the Infocalypse, which the autho

The disputed region has received less than 600 visitors since mid-July, compared with 14,600 in the same period last year SRINAGAR, India, September 29 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - When Kashmir went into a coronavirus lockdown in March, tourism in the Indian-administered territory had already been hobbled by eight months of tight security restrictions that New Delhi imposed after revoking the region's semi-autonomous status. Now hoteliers, taxi drivers and others relying on