The second green revolution found a mention in the Union Budget as a big achievement for the government. But, while paddy production went up manifold in eastern India, did it help its producers? In Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s home state of West Bengal, there was agony everywhere in the last few months, as paddy and potatoes were selling cheap and pauperised cultivators were killing themselves. The government was nowhere to procure...

The government plans to cut its subsidy bill to under 2% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2012-13, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said in his budget speech on Friday. High crude oil prices and burgeoning fertilizer subsidies, primarily on account of imported non-urea fertilizers, have meant India’s subsidy bill has zoomed to Rs2.16 trillion, or 2.5% of the GDP. Mukherjee has set an ambitious target to reduce this to under 1.75%...

-PTI The government has pegged its outgo on food, fuel and fertiliser subsidies in the 2012-13 fiscal at over Rs1.79 lakh crore, nearly 14% lower than the revised estimates for the current fiscal. According to the Budget proposals, the government's subsidy bill on food, petroleum and fertilisers is estimated at Rs1,79,554 crore for the 2012-13 fiscal as against Rs2,08,503 crore in the revised estimates for this fiscal. Interestingly, the revised estimate for this...

-The Hindu With the Supreme Court issuing notice to the Central government on the matter of illegal drug trials, the sordid state of human clinical trials is all set to be exposed. For multinational companies eager to cut corners, India offers an attractive package of weak laws, lax and almost non-existent oversight of trials, a huge illiterate, vulnerable population that can be easily exploited, very little volunteer protection and a sizeable...

-The Times of India   The National Human Rights Commission took cognizance of a TOI report about clinical trials of a sexual dysfunction drug conducted by Indore's government doctors on mentally-ill patients in private clinics. The commission issued a notice to the Madhya Pradesh chief secretary asking him to submit a report within four weeks. The NHRC also directed the chief secretary to inform if the doctors followed ICMR guidelines while getting approval...