-The Times of India Almost a year after prices of cardiac stents were capped, an examination of bills from various hospitals shows that the extent to which it has brought down the total cost of an angioplasty depends on which hospital you go to. When the price of stents was capped at Rs 30,000 in February last year, the order had stated that the prices would be reviewed after one year. As...

-The Indian Express Price deficiency payment schemes in Madhya Pradesh and Haryana do not cover farmers’ losses. Telangana’s input support scheme deserves nation-wide emulation. Farm distress is likely to be one of the major focal points of the upcoming Union Budget. Agri-GDP growth has fallen to around 2 per cent per annum in the first four years of the Modi government; the real incomes of farmers have fallen as well. The growth...

-The Indian Express Will include clause to protect rights of labourers during closure of factories, says labour minister Mumbai: Three months after it proposed to ease norms for closure of factories, the Maharashtra government is now planning to revise its proposal to make it easier for factory owners with less than 150 employees to close down, instead of the 300 employees as proposed earlier. The government said it would also include a...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The upcoming Budget poses a big challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. There are too many demands on the Budget while the government is expected to stick to its fiscal deficit targets. Traditionally, Modi's Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) has been seen to rely on middle-class voters—urban workers and small traders. But Modi's rise to power was fuelled equally by rural voters. Budget 2018-19 being the last full...

-Business Standard The Budget allocation for Ministry of Agriculture and allied activities has grown by 114% since 2010-11 As Finance Minister Arun Jaitley gets down to deliver his fifth annual Budget for the 2018-19 financial year, all eyes will be on his announcements for the rural sector which is going through a downturn in the last few years. Two consecutive droughts along with a sharp fall in incomes have turned agriculture unprofitable...