-The Indian Express The Bharat Krishak Samaj (BSK) has long urged the merger of the agriculture ministry with the water resources and rural development ministries, in the interests of better coordination. With cooperative federalism gaining currency as an idea, that might just become possible. Now, the panchayati raj and food processing ministries could join the club, leaving agriculture, for all practical purposes, to the states, as envisaged by the Constitution. But...

-PTI Chandigarh: Punjab's farming sector has expressed disappointment over the Union Budget for not taking "pro-farmers" decision to provide much-needed fillip to the state's agriculture which has been suffering with "high" input cost and "lower" output prices. Even the farm experts have also expressed displeasure with the budget for not announcing any financial assistance to Punjab to promote crop diversification as state's wheat-paddy production has reached saturation point, besides taking a toll...

-The Indian Express The Union budget is largely about the intentions and policies of the government of the day, as well as the arithmetic of resource mobilisation and allocation to achieve certain ends in the economy. The diagnostics of various economic problems and their probable solutions are generally found in the Economic Survey. The Economic Survey clearly indicates that growth in agri-GDP in FY15 has collapsed to just 1.1 per cent, while...

-Economic and Political Weekly Since independence, India's national health policies have been aspirational but the end results have been limited. The National Health Policy 2015, which is in the process of being finalised, should, in place of the earlier "broadband" approach, adopt a "narrow focus" on primary healthcare through the National Rural Health Mission. The latter has focused on primary healthcare and has shown visible results. A slew of suggestions as...

-Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA) Press Release   New Delhi: The direction indicated by the Finance Minister's Budget Speech in general and that of the taxation policies in particular indicate a quantum leap being taken towards market fundamentalism. In the absence of any increase in the overall spending capacity of the government (Centre and States combined), the steps for fiscal decentralization (from Centre to States) have been constrained, implying only...