A Nobel-prize winning economist has said India needs to be “much more generous” in providing relief to the millions of people who have been direly hit by the ongoing lockdown. “We haven’t done anything close to enough,” Indian-American academic Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, told the BBC.

After imposing the lockdown on 24 March, India announced a $23bn (£18bn) relief package. Much of it involves cash transfers and food security for the poor. “We don’t want anyone to remain hungry, and we don’t want anyone to remain without money in their hands,” Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said at the time.

Professor Banerjee, who won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2019 with co-researchers Esther Dufflo and Michael Kremer, said the “government was right in its thinking to throw a shock in the system” to contain the spread of the Covid-19 infection. “But the lockdown is not the end of the story. This disease is going to be with us for a long time until a vaccine arrives, which is not anytime soon,” the economist who teaches at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) said.(BBC)…[+]

Unlike in many European countries where it is illegal, US households have the water connection turned off for non-payment of bills. That has left many Americans without water at a time when they are being told that one of the most important things they can do is wash their hands.

“I have been without water for about six months now,” says Akiva Durr. A mother of two girls, she lives in one of the most deprived neighbourhoods not just of Detroit, but of the entire country. “This time has been very stressful, but I did make my own sanitiser,” says Akiva, adding that she has been using aloe vera gel and alcohol as a makeshift way to try to protect her children from the virus. Before the pandemic, Akiva was collecting water from neighbours and friends to bathe her children. “I’d give them a bath every other day, or do a sponge bath to save water,” she tells me. “It’s depressing.”

Now even visiting neighbours has become difficult, and that is not the only way life has been made much more difficult during this time for those without water. “Most people whose water is turned off look just like you and I,” says Reverend Roslyn Bouier. “They (usually) go to work every day and their kids go to school,” she says. “That means they could use toilets away from home, find ways to drink water, or be able to wash their hands.”(BBC)…[+]

The global health of insect populations is far more complicated than previously thought, new data suggests.

Previous research indicated an alarming decline in numbers in all parts of world, with losses of up to 25% per decade. This new study, the largest carried out to date, says the picture is more complex and varied. Land-dwelling insects are definitely declining the authors say, while bugs living in freshwater are increasing.Reports of the rapid and widespread decline of insects globally have caused great worry to scientists.

The creatures are among the most abundant and diverse species on the planet and play key roles, from aerating the soil to pollination and recycling of nutrients. Case studies, such as one from nature reserves in western Germany, indicated a dramatic fall, with around a 75% decrease over 27 years.

Many other, similar reports have followed. But many of these were specific to a region or a species. This new study, the largest on insect change to date, aims to give a more complete understanding of what’s really happening to bugs worldwide.(BBC)…[+]