Heena Sharma Blog

  French health authorities on Tuesday reported 22,857 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, sharply up from Monday's 4,703 and higher than the 20,064 daily cases registered a week ago. The cumulative number of patients who have caught the respiratory illness rose to 3,783,528, the sixth-highest tally in the world. Coronavirus-linked fatalities were at 87,220 after 417 died within one day, including 117 in retirement homes. A total of 25,263 people with COVID-19 were hospitalized, down by 167 from Monday's figure, while 3,586 needed life support, up by 42. Faced with the spread of more contagious variants of COVID-19, the pressure in hospitals remained "very strong" and four to six tough weeks are still ahead, said Gabriel Attal, the government spokesman. Attal, meanwhile, expected an improvement in the epidemic situation thanks to the vaccination campaign, which according to him "will gradually help protect the most vulnerable people, ease the pre...

Each evening, the sun sets more than 90 minutes later in western India than in the east of the country, yet the entire country follows the same time zone. Later sunset means people stay awake longer, which induces sleep deprivation among children and negatively affects their study efforts, a new study by a research scholar at Cornell University has found. As a result of sleeping late, children are less likely to complete primary and middle school, and this effect is most pronounced among poor households, says the study, ‘Poor Sleep: Sunset Time and Human Capital Production’, which analysed the consequences India faces by operating under a single time zone. “ Back-of-the-envelope estimates suggest that India incurs annual human capital costs of roughly $4.1 billion (nearly Rs 29,000 crore) or 0.2% of nominal GDP [gross domestic product] due to the existing policy regulating time zone boundaries,” Maulik Jagnani, the author of the study, told IndiaSpend in an email interview. ...