-The Indian Express The scheme was introduced in October last year, four months after farmer unrest claimed six lives. The registration for rabi crops — chana, mustard, lentil and onion — will begin from February 12 at 3,500 primary agriculture co-op societies and continue until March 12. Bhopal (M.P.): Encouraged by response to Bhavantar Bhugtan Yojana (BBY), a price deficiency payment scheme implemented last year for eight kharif crops in the wake...

-The Indian Express Budget’s bias toward privately-delivered care undermines universal health coverage Until about four decades ago, specialist healthcare (secondary and tertiary care) was largely a provINCe of public hospitals, and the private sector largely kept itself to the provision of generalist healthcare. This underwent a transformation with the rise of the advanced medical interventions comprising tertiary-care medicine like organ transplantation and open heart surgery. Given these highly-profitable medical advances, the private...

-The Times of India SURAT (Gujarat): Even as police are trying to reach the root of biometric data theft racket done to pilfer food grains issued to poor people, another scam of tampering with Aadhar data has been exposed in the city. The accused Hiren Prajapati, 26 and Prashant Pradhan, 20, both residents of Pandesara, were modifying the Aadhar Card data of individuals using a rubber thumb. They were arrested on Saturday...

-TheWire.in Arun Jaitley’s Budget speech was vague on the details, and closer inspection reveals that it was also misleading. Arun Jaitley, presenting his fourth Budget as finance minister, announced that he is fulfilling a promise made by his party in the election manifesto for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections – the promise of a minimum support price (MSP) that is 50% higher than farmers’ cost of production. “Government has decided to keep...

-The Hindu Policy should address credit, crop insurance, drip irrigation The government’s efforts to focus on the welfare of farmers in the Union Budget is admirable. However, in a zero-sum situation such as budget allocation, the government often finds itself trying to choose between short-term results and long-term benefits. Short term results might come with loan waivers and INCrease of Minimum Support Price (MSP), but care should be taken to address the...