-Business World In the run up to Independence Day, Professor Ashok Gulati wrote a scathing critique of what he has described as “elitist biases in public policy”, that ignore the reality of the masses in rural areas. The reality he describes is that of low rates of growth in agriculture; a sector that majority of Indians still depend on.  He lamented the excessive preponderance of economic policy discourse in the country...

-Goverance Now A little stress on water management, cropping methods, research programmes and policies can help coping with droughts Marathwada of Maharashtra comprising eight districts (Aurangabad, Jalna, Parbhani, Nanded, Latur, Beed, Osmanabad and Hingoli) is traditionally a drought-prone region. The situation has worsened with rainfall deficiency for three consecutive years. Rainfall deficit for 2014 was 45 percent, this was followed by a deficit of more than 50 percent in many districts...

-The Hindu Rescuing Maternal and Child Health-only systems, which have become under-resourced and have built a very high-cost but low-performance culture, will be a challenging task. Given the rising burden of non-communicable diseases, there is an increasing demand to build health systems that can address these concerns. However, given how large the unfinished agenda of the Millennium Development Goals is, the Indian government has chosen to stay focussed on Maternal and Child...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Expecting mothers could get maternity leave for eight months if Union minister Maneka Gandhi has her way. Gandhi—in charge of the ministry of women and child development---has proposed increasing maternity leave from three months to eight months. "We have mooted a proposal of extending the maternity leave for working women from present three months to eight months to the Cabinet Secretariat for a discussion in the...

-Business Standard Mobile commerce venture AgroStar supplies seeds and fertiliser to farmers. As the company expands, delivery will be a challenge Navinbhai Karsanbhai Patel, a farmer from Navanagar in Gujarat, used to have a hard time securing quality inputs for his four-acre farm. That was before he got to know about AgroStar's offerings. His association with the company, now 18 months old, has resulted in 300 missed calls to the helpline number...