In India, 11.9 lakh excess deaths occurred in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, 17 per cent higher compared to 2019, an international study has found. The estimate is about eight times higher than the official COVID-19 deaths in India, and 1.5 times the World Health Organization’s estimates, researchers, including those from the University of Oxford, UK, said. Using data of over 7.65 lakh individuals, the study estimated changes in life expectancy at birth, by gender and social group between 2019 and 2020 in India, a country where one-third of global…