| Dear Express Explained reader, There is a renewed Covid scare across the country. Case numbers are rising, driven by spikes in half a dozen states. As of Sunday morning, the Health Ministry’s dashboard was showing 3,395 active cases around the country, almost 40% of which were in Kerala. This is probably due to better testing and reporting of infections, which in turn suggests that the low numbers in other states, where the healthcare infrastructure is less robust, could be misleading. A total 26 people have died in the five months since the beginning of this year; however, the government has cautioned against drawing definitive conclusions until more details of individual cases are available. There is no reason for most people to worry as of now. The variant of the coronavirus that is circulating currently in the country is nowhere as dangerous as the ones from 2020-22. However, as always, it is good to take precautions, wear masks in crowded places, and remind ourselves once again of the critical need to wash hands with soap from time to time. The elderly, and those with certain medical conditions should be especially careful. Do read the wrap that Kaunain Sheriff M wrote earlier this week for a comprehensive picture of where we are, and what you need to know. The International Monetary Fund has forced Pakistan to initiate a series of reforms as a condition for continuing its loans to the country, including important reforms in the agriculture sector. Several economists believe India would do well to carry out similar reforms; however, economic and political realities make it difficult for governments to push for them. Harish Damodaran wrote about Pakistan’s reforms at gunpoint and, for context, drew some interesting comparisons with India. Separately, Harish wrote about India’s international trade in agri commodities, and put the situation of exports and imports in the context of the commercial agreements that the country is currently negotiating with the United States, United Kingdom and the European Union. Do read. Udit Misra wrote two interesting and informative explainers this week: one on the economics of US President Donald Trump’s rather strangely named One Big Beautiful Bill and what it could end up doing to American government finances; and another on the various ways of looking at the performance of any national economy vis-à-vis others – differences in choosing and analysing data that underlie the recent discussions on whether India has really gone past Japan to become the world’s fourth largest economy. This year’s southwest monsoon has arrived sooner than expected, continuing with the unusual weather phenomena that many parts of India have been seeing, including a wetter, cooler May and a large number of summer storms. Anjali Marar explained what is meant by the ‘onset’ of the monsoon, what caused the rains to start early this year, and what this means for the remainder of the four-month rainy season. Thank you for reading The Indian Express Explained. There is a large body of explanatory journalism, on a wide range of topics, on our website, and I hope you will check it out soon if you haven’t already. Also, many of our best explainers are now behind a paywall, so I hope you will subscribe. Sincerely, Monojit |
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