Breakfast: Now the meal of the day
BREKKER CAN BE SWEET OR SAVOURY AND THIS MEANS YOU CAN USE UP INGREDIENTS CLOSE TO THEIR EXPIRY DATES
By now most of us have gone through crests and troughs. The stage of excitement and experimentation has been supplanted with a degree of fatigue. The overriding aim now is to maximise efficiency — especially when it comes to cooking and cleaning. But for many, breakfast, the meal that sets the tone for the day, is becoming pivotal.
“Breakfast jumpstarts the gut. People who begin the day with a balanced meal of protein, carbohydrates and fiber tend to eat less junk food during the day,” says Bipasha Das, a senior nutritionist in Delhi. “A high-fiber breakfast of slow-release carbs prevents mid-morning sugar cravings. A fruity French toast with homemade juice or an apple-oats-berries-almond smoothie are good options.”
Most families eat egg-andbread combinations with a glass of milk, tea or coffee. Some are using the lockdown to do more, as a means to buoy spirits and with an eye on practicality — lunch can then be small, simple or even skipped altogether.
Leftovers are now being looked
YOUR DAILY WORKOUT
Squats: Get your child in a bearhug position. Place your feet shoulder-width apart, and squat. Start with a few half squats, increase the number and intensity gradually. Make sure to concentrate the added weight on your thighs, rather than your back. advisor at consultancy firm EY India, said, “One salient feature of this tranche is that the direct fiscal cost (or cash spending) accounts for nearly 30% of the estimated benefit, which is much higher than in earlier two tranches.” His reference is to the fact the fiscal cost of the previous tranches is estimated by economists at a fraction of the overall number – a Credit Suisse report put the fiscal cost of the ~1.7 lakh crore welfare package, the ~5.7 lakh crore monetary measures, and the first tranche of ~5.94 lakh crore announced on Wednesday at around ~55,000 crore.
On Friday, the finance minister announced ~1 lakh crore to fund new farm-gate infrastructure, or simply agricultural produce markets, harvest management facilities, and a law to permit farmers to freely sell their produce to any trader of their choice, potentially ending persistent trade barriers in food trade that have been characterised by so-called agricultural market produce committees (APMCS). Sitharaman said a mechanism would be fixed to assure profitable prices for farmers, which means at least a baseline profitable price signal available at the “time of sowing”. This is referred to as price discovery, whereby farmers will be able to estimate crop prices before taking sowing decisions so that they are able to grow commodities for which there will be demand.
“A central law will be formulated to provide adequate choices to farmers to sell produce at attractive price, barrier-free inter-state trade and a framework for e-trading of agriculture produce.” She also outlined proposed changes to the Essential Commodities Act (ESA), to “enable better price realisation for farmers by attracting investments and making agriculture sector competitive.”
The indication is that the government will use the law more sparingly, a proposal for which had been made by an interministerial panel to reform the sector in January. The ESA allows the government to decide how much stock wholesale traders or even retailers can store, legally called “stock limits”. Cereals, edible oils, oilseeds, pulses, onions and potato will be deregulated, she said. Stock limits will be imposed under very exceptional circumstances.
The finance minister, responding to a question, rejected the upon favourably; the idea is to make them go two or three ways.
“Chopped veggies from the previous night, mixed with leftover rajma and served with quinoa is breakfast,” says Manuja Shroff, a Mumbai entrepreneur in her 30s. “Or I throw spinach in with leftover veggies, add cheese, break a few eggs into the pan to do my version of a shakshuka.” At times, her breakfast options are decided by what will minimise the dishwashing.
For instance, she makes bacon-and-egg muffins you can just pick off a platter and eat.
“Instead of making a cheese omelette, fry bacon in a separate pan, toast the bread in the toaster, it’s all combined in the muffin tray,” she says.
Many families are using ingredients on their last legs, as improvised breakfast plans. “We had bananas and sliced bread not too far from their expiry dates, and milk, and they had to be consumed, that too with some style and taste. So we made a bread banana pudding,” says professor Sidharth Mishra, 52, from Kau
Planks: Kneel, bend forward and rest your forearms flat on the ground. Stretch your legs all the way back, resting only on your toes, legs about shoulder-width apart. With your back parallel to the ground, get your kid to sit astride your back.
Hold position for as long as you can.
Bicep curls:
Stand with legs shoulder-width apart. Carry your kid like you would when rocking a baby to sleep with both arms. Now move forearms up and down in three sets of ten, with a minute’s break.
Method:
Drain the tin of tuna, for later. saving the brine In a bowl, mix tuna, refrigerate mayo, chillies; for 30 mins. In a flat tray, assemble bowl or salad salad from bottom salt, pepper up, dusting and paprika lightly
Spread lettuce over each layer. leaves at base, top onions, then with layer chilled tuna-mayo of cucumber. mix, then
At this point, if your drizzle with salad looks tuna brine. dry, olives Top with tomatoes, and sliced or quartered last of the eggs. Drizzle brine and the chill before serving.
Opposition’s charges that much of her announcements were re-allocated spending and had included taxpayer refunds. “We have included schemes announced in the Budget. But amounts are being disbursed now. When was the Budget? In February. When we are giving expedited tax refunds, it is taxpayers money. I am specifically saying that,” Sitharaman said. These reforms in “agricultural marketing”, or the mandi system that controls buying and selling of farm produce, have been a long time in the making. Various panels and economists have often argued for changing the existing structures. APMC regulations require farmers to only sell to licensed middlemen in notified markets, usually in the same area where a farmer resides, rather than in an open market. They often act as cartels, evidence suggests. In December 2010, when prices peaked during the last major spike, a probe by the country’s statutory anti-monopoly body, the Competition Commission of India, revealed that one firm accounted for nearly a fifth of the onion trading for that month at Lasalgoan APMC.
Ushered in during the 1960s, APMC regulations were meant to protect farmers from distress selling. Under the system, farmers have to go through smaller crop aggregators to access bulk buyers. Over time, this has spawned layers of intermediaries spanning the farm-to-fork supply chain. This results in a large “price spread”, or the fragmentation of profit shares due to the presence of several middlemen. Farmers often get the lowest shares.
EY’S Srivastava added that “the focus on agriculture and allied sectors in this third tranche of the stimulus package may be justified due to its large share in employment. These reforms are both welfare-improving and efficiency-augmenting”.
“Terms of trade has moved away from agriculture. That is what the government appears to have realised and trying to correct,” said economist YK Alagh.
His reference is to the total prices paid by farmers in running their households versus total prices received by selling their produce. Agriculture in India suffers negative total revenues, or negative terms of trade implying that assets going out of the sector are more than those flowing in. Farming, therefore, has steadily become an unprofitable occupation, according to a 2018 study by the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a grouping of 36 countries, and the New Delhi-based think-tank ICRIER.
The government will bring in a facilitative legal framework to enable farmers for engaging with processors, aggregators, large retailers, exporters, etc, in a fair and transparent manner, the minister said. “This will ensure assured returns and risk mitigation for farmers.”
“A central law to enable farmers to sell to a buyer of their choice including online channels and marketplaces is expected to go a long way in maximizing farmer realisations while minimizing intermediary transaction costs. Farmers would be able to avail of price discovery and sell their products on both government platforms like E-NAM and private online grocery platforms,” said Arindam Guha, an economist with Deloitte India. To improve animal husbandry incomes, which gives higher net returns compared to crops, Sitharaman said: “We want to ensure 100% vaccination of nearly 530 million animals... Despite Covid-19 lockdown, 15 million cows and buffaloes have been tagged and vaccinated.” To control foot and mouth diseases, which cripples milk output of afflicted animals, the FM announced ~13,343 crore. The government will set up an Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund worth ~15,000 crore to “support private investment in dairy processing, value addition and cattle feed infrastructure”. It will implement a scheme for infrastructure development related to beekeeping, according to the finance minister, aiming to increase incomes of 200,000 beekeepers. The government has extended the Operation Greens for Tomatoes, Onion and Potatoes (TOP) to all fruits and vegetables. Under this, 50% subsidy would be given on transportation from surplus to deficient markets and 50% subsidy on storage. The finance minister also allotted ~4,000 crore for herbal plantations.
“These initiatives may prove good in the long run but they do not solve the problem of farmers whose harvests perished because of the lockdown. It is clear that the government is in no mood to compensate these losses directly,” said economist Sudhir Panwar, a former member of the erstwhile UP State Planning Commission.
All told, the government on shambi, Uttar Pradesh. “In this way nothing goes to waste and we cut down going on trips to the market too.”
Breakfast is also a time to draw in newer kitchen allies, says Gayatri Mundlye, 35, a Bengaluru-based content marketing professional. “My two-year-old son, Shaan, has learnt to mix his own milkshake. He has his own kitchen mat and tools. This is a good way to keep an eye on your child and make him pick up good habits.”
At Gurgaon-based Sona Mazumdar’s home too, the kids, aged 13 and 9, have been “broken into the kitchen” by having to make pancakes and fry sausages and hash browns to fancy up breakfasts. Mazumdar, 43, chief partnership officer at an entertainment company, plans to try her hand at Eggs Benedict someday. But what she is actually looking forward to is going back to ‘square one’: Eggs and bread.
READ
My India by Jim Corbett: Corbett writes of the people he comes in contact with, rather than the animals — a village headman who is also a poacher; a teenaged head of a family; a dacoit on the run. His keen sense of observation and richness of detail make this an interesting read.
WATCH
Run: Merritt Wever plays a mother of two who hits eject on her life and decides to fulfill a pact she made with a college boyfriend — that if either messaged the other the word ‘RUN’, they would drop everything to tour America. An offbeat dark comedy with the added bonus of appearances by Phoebe Waller-bridge, Run is now streaming on Disney+ Hotstar.
Friday announced funding worth ~1.63 lakh crore. This includes ~10,000 crore for micro food enterprises, ~20,000 crore for fisheries, ~500 crore for beekeeping and another ~500 crore for Operation TOPS, the vegetables mission. So far, the government has unveiled measures worth over ~9.1 lakh crore in the earlier two tranches since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation on May 12. responded in an affidavit on March 31, detailing various steps taken by it to address the issues raised in the petition. The new application filed by the petitioner referred to comments by solicitor general Tushar Mehta, when filing the earlier affidavit -- that “there is no person walking on the roads in an attempt to reach his/her home towns/villages.”
The central government, in response to the earlier petition, had said that there were 26,476 relief and shelter camps across the country housing about one million migrant workers and other people in need.the court disposed of that case on April 27.
On Friday, the bench headed by justice L Nageswara Rao left it to the states concerned to take action to deal with the problem, maintaining that it could not pass orders based on media reports. “It is impossible for this court to monitor who is walking and who is not walking,” justice Rao said. The central government told the court that migrant workers were leaving cities on foot, though travel arrangements were made by way of running of special trains. “They are not waiting for their turn and they start walking. They may wait for their turn rather than starting on foot,” solicitor general Mehta, who was representing the central government, told the court. Mehta also said that using force to stop migrant workers from walking home would be counterproductive. “Your knowledge is based on newspaper reports. How can you expect us to pass orders? Let the states take action,” the SC bench told the petitioner, dismissing his application. proved to be effective, with no Covid-19 death being reported in official figures in the neighbouring country over the last 30 days.
“Lowering the fraction of the people who test positive is a better indicator of whether new infections have been controlled than the doubling rate, which is flawed as it also takes into account old and active cases. A low fraction of positives among people tested indicates falling infection (rates) because as testing increases, so do the number of people who test positive,” said Dr K Srinath Reddy, president, Public Health Foundation of India. The spread of Covid-19 has been slower in India than in China and other parts of the world, according to epidemiologists. “The health systems in states haven’t been overwhelmed; there are no sudden unexplained hospitalisations and deaths, as seen during dengue or encephalitis outbreaks. The data from China is less reliable. There’s far more transparency in India, where attempts by some governments such as West Bengal to juggle death numbers have been quickly exposed,” said Dr Ambarish Dutta, associate professor of epidemiology and public health, Indian Institute of Public Health, Bhubaneswar. “We have more active cases (than in China) because the growth rate has been slow. The disease appears to be less severe in India; we still don’t have scientific evidence on why this is happening, it could be cross infections, it could be innate immunity or higher humidity and temperature, we still don’t know,” said Dutta.
India’s recovery rate improved to 33.6%, up from 32.83% on Wednesday.
Deaths in India are two per one million population, compared to three deaths per million in China. Data from the 50 countries with the most cases shows that deaths per million are the lowest in the two most populated nations in the world, except for Bangladesh. “If performance of hospitals is being compared, case fatality rate matters, but to assess an epidemic, state of the epidemic is being assessed, deaths per million is the statistic that tells us whether a district or state is in a safer zone than another,” said Reddy.
With most states moving towards a staggered lifting of the lockdown, experts say the progress of the outbreak over the next few weeks will depend on the lessons learned so far. An epidemiologist at the health ministry, requesting anonymity, said: “The focus for India now is not rising cases, but the rate of spread of the disease. Covid-19 is here to stay, cases will go up; we have to be prepared for managing severe disease. India’s R0 is 1.4, we have to work to bring it below one to reverse the pandemic.”