-Down to Earth Expresses concern over alcohol brands being advertised in violation of rules India is emerging as the favourite destination for alcohol promotion of marketing companies. Their new targets are women and youth, who at present comprise a very small percentage of alcohol consumers in India. These are the observations made by a report-Alcohol Marketing and Regulatory Policy Environment in India-put out by the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI). It...

-The Indian Express On the surface, the sugar crisis in Uttar Pradesh may seem to be inching closer to a resolution. But cane farmers may have unwittingly mortgaged their land, signing up for crop loans from public sector banks, with the money so raised being used by the mills to pay arrears of a different set of farmers. This model, of mills rotating working capital loans from banks, to deliver pending payouts...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The price caps imposed by the Indian government on 348 drugs earlier this year have created only an illusion of control, keeping many medicines for conditions ranging from asthma to diabetes and heart disease beyond price regulations, experts said today. The Price Control order issued by the department of pharmaceuticals in May has led to a 22 per cent reduction in the average cost of some 250 medicines,...

-Economic and Political Weekly Part-II reports the impact of in-kind food transfers on nutritional intake as measured by calories. Econometric analysis using a simple calorie demand function confirms the significance of variables relating to public distribution system access, controlling for other covariates, in its contribution to calorie intake. Results also suggest that the calorie-elasticity of PDS transfers is twice as large compared to additional out-of-pocket income equal to the cash equivalent...

-The Hindustan Times Prices of almost all everyday products and services - from food to footwear and movie tickets to medicines - saw a sharp rise in October, pushing retail inflation to 10.09%, the highest in seven months. Costlier onions and tomatoes saw retail inflation - a measure of prices that are asked of you at a shop - cross the double-digit mark for the first time in seven months, indicating Indians...