Considering the widespread transmission of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) globally, India is also facing the same crisis. As India already has inadequate waste treatment facilities, and the sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 virus has led to significant growth of Bio-medical waste (BMW), consequently safe disposal of a large quantity of waste has become a more serious concern. This study provides a comprehensive assessment of BMW of India before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, this article highlights the gaps in the implementation of BMW rules in India. This study uses various government and non-government organizations, reports and data specifically from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). The finding of the study demonstrated that most of the States/Union Territories (UTs) of India are lacking in terms of COVID-19 waste management. India has generated over 32,996 mt of COVID-19 waste between June and December 2020. During this period, Maharashtra (789.99 mt/month) is highest average generator of COVID-19 waste, followed by Kerala (459.86 mt/month), Gujarat (434.87 mt/month), Tamil Nadu (427.23 mt/month), Uttar Pradesh (371.39 mt/month), Delhi (358.83 mt/month) and West Bengal (303.15 mt/month), and others respectively. We draw attention to the fact that many gaps were identified with compliance of BMW management rules. For example, out of all 35 States/UTs, health care facilitates (HCFs), only eight states received authorization as per BMW management rules. Moreover, the government strictly restricted the practice of deep burials; however, 23 States/UTs are still using the deep burial methods for BMW disposal. The present research suggests that those States/UTs generated on an average of 100 mt/month COVID-19 waste in the last 7 months (June–December 2020) should be considered as a high priority state. These states need special attention to implement BMW rules and should upgrade their BMW treatment capacity.

This study examines the gender-specific determinants of the components of frailty in a community-dwelling setting in India. Using data from the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI) Wave-1, this study employed 30,978 (14,885 male and 16,093 female) older adults (aged 60+) to fulfil the study objective. The modified Fried frailty phenotype criteria defines frailty by the five components: exhaustion, weak grip strength, slow walking speed, unintentional weight loss, and low physical activity. The result showed grip strength (79.1%) as the most discriminant component among males, and physical activity (81.6%) as the most discriminant component among females. The results also indicated that grip strength (male: 98.0%, female: 93.5%) and physical activity (male: 94.8%, female: 96.9%) showed a sensitivity of more than 90%, which appears to be a good indicator of frailty. Combining this dual marker increased the accuracy to 99.97% among male and 99.98% among female samples. The findings suggested adding grip strength and physical activity as a proxy measure of frailty, which can increase the precision of screening without a large additional investment of time, training, or cost.