-Frontline The National Advisory Council recommendations seem to be making a strong case for a major role for the private sector in the delivery of health care. THE recommendations for universal health coverage drawn up by the National Advisory Council (NAC), headed by United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi, push for public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the health delivery system but not for any inbuilt mechanisms for accountability. The NAC also...

-The Indian Express Why the proposed national minimum wage is the wrong answer to questions of unemployment and poverty The recent national labour conference - a trade union love fest with little real employer participation - demanded a national minimum wage. The trade union demand is a predictable positioning of narrow self-interest as national interest but the government's acceptance of their demand is unfair, delusional and economically stupid. Unfair, because it pampers a...

-The Telegraph The sudden arrest of Amway India's top brass on Monday has focused the spotlight on the crumbling fault lines and the grey areas in the demarcation between some of the world's best-known direct selling companies and the dodgy Ponzi schemes that promise huge returns to gullible investors and have lately grabbed all the sensational headlines in Bengal. William S. Pinckney, managing director of Amway India, and two directors of the...

-The Hindu Instead of opening a debate on the Gadgil panel's report on the Western Ghats, the government has chosen to sideline and replace it with another by an alternate group This is a challenging time in India's development history where a number of tenets of environmental governance are being questioned by the imperative of growth. Environmental governance in India is under assault, and is thus in need of both fresh thinking,...

-The Business Standard Team set up after movement began under Aruna roy, activist Baba Adhav 2 years ago demanding universal pension as a right for all A task force set up by the Government to look into reforms in pension for the unorganised sector has recommended universal pension for those below the poverty line, and a target of covering them in the next five years. It also recommended a slight increase in pensions...