-The Hindu Business Line The Centre has adopted a pragmatic approach to cooking gas subsidies The reintroduction of the direct benefits transfer scheme for the supply of cooking gas, after its withdrawal in March this year, is a welcome signal that subsidy targeting is back on the policy agenda. Unlike its UPA avatar, cash transfers will now be based on LPG consumers providing their bank account numbers, rather than Aadhaar numbers, to...

-The Indian Express Last week, India and the US reached an understanding on working out a "permanent solution" to the issue of public stockholding for food security purposes at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The deal is seen as a breakthrough, ending the impasse that had stalled the implementation of a landmark Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) hammered out at the WTO's ministerial conference in Bali last December. * What is this deal...

-The Hindu Business Line Question use of US dollar to notify subsidies, low-income/resource-poor tag for all farmers India has yet another fight on its hands at the World Trade Organization (WTO) over food subsidies. Many developed nations are now questioning the agriculture subsidies notified by India, charging that the country may have under-stated the actual figures. India's decision to notify the subsidies in US dollars rather than the rupee is particularly under the...

-The Hindu The Deutsche Bank Urban Age Award 2014 sought to recognise projects that work towards improving the urban conditions of communities in Delhi We know what's going wrong, and we ask the right questions; questions which crop up while our car drives down narrow roads with broken street lights, landfills spilling over with waste we have created from nothing, and slums we cannot really imagine the insides of. Our city is...

-Outlook Mumbai: Asking micro-lenders to look at only a "reasonable profit" to sustain their business while serving borrowers at the bottom of pyramid, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan has said that one should not think of making a fortune while serving poorest of the poor. The comments come in sharp contrast to management guru late CK Prahalad's views in his book The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. The concept of the fortune...