-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Eliminating Planning Commission's role in etching the poverty line and instead tasking expert government agencies to determine India's below poverty line population may help depoliticize the exercise, a former top NSSO official has said. Former director-general of National SAMple Survey Organization (NSSO) Jogeshwar Dash feels the Planning Commission's mandate of framing policy clashes with estimating poverty ratios that are an outcome of strategies the panel devises. "Poverty...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Branded medicines cost 2-15 times more than non-branded generic medicines sold at Jan Aushadhi stores. For example, a 10-tablet strip of Diclofenac SR (100mg), a popular pain killer, costs Rs 51.91 whereas the SAMe generic medicine costs only Rs 3.35 at Jan Aushadhi stores. An 100 ml bottle of cough syrup manufactured and marketed by drug companies costs Rs 33 while those sold at Jan Aushadhi...

-PTI NEW DELHI: Concerned over escalating prices of onion, Delhi Government today said it is considering setting up of outlets across the city to make available the vegetable at reasonable rates. "We may open stalls, like we did before, to make available onions at reasonable rates in case prices continue to soar," Development Minister Raj Kumar Chauhan, who looks after functioning of wholesale vegetable and fruit markets in the city, said. He said...

-The Hindu New Delhi: It was to meet the commuting needs of the differently-abled, like Nitin (name changed) who is a wheel-chair user and resides in Vikaspuri in West Delhi, that low floor buses in Delhi were specially designed by a team of IIT-Delhi, Tata Motors and NGO SAMarthyam. But with their drivers and conductors often not bothering to stop for the disabled and those in need of assistance, the entire...

-The Hindu Per capita entitlements under the food security bill will not cover beneficiaries as comprehensively as household entitlements The government hopes to secure in this session of Parliament, approval for the National Food Security Bill (NFSB) so that it can replace the food security ordinance. The NFSB, on which the ordinance is based, guarantees supplementary nutrition services through anganwadis for all children under six, midday meals for schoolchildren, and, very importantly, maternity...