India, May 9 -- HT exclusively reported the data released by the home ministry that India recorded almost 2 million more deaths in 2021 - the deadliest year of the Covid-19 pandemic in India - than the preceding few years. Data from another report also showed that 81,000 more deaths were eventually attributed to Covid-19 than was first reported in the official pandemic bulletins issued by states.

There are two strands that stand out in the data: one, many states undercounted Covid deaths, perhaps because their health systems were overwhelmed; and two (and this is the more prominent strand), there was an inexplicable spike in overall deaths in 2021, by around 2 million.

It is difficult to understand how 2 million deaths could just not be...