-The Hindu The government's reasoning that the land ordinance was meant to extend the benefit of the new law to various types of land acquisitions left uncovered so far is disingenuous Democracy is an exercise in public reason. Democratically elected governments cannot simply throw around the weight of their majority. They have a responsibility to offer good reasons for their decisions. And they must do so publicly. That is why we follow...

-The Telegraph New delhi: The Narendra Modi government's practice of letting the Prime Minister's Office take all the major decisions on behalf of virtually every ministry resulted in the women and child development ministry receiving flak from the Supreme Court this week. On Wednesday, the court rapped the ministry for allowing the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights to remain vacant for the past three months since the tenures of...

-The Telegraph New delhi: India's patent regulating agency today rejected a US company's patent claim on a drug to treat hepatitis C, raising hopes that generic drug makers could now produce cheaper versions of the medicine. The Indian Patents Controller has denied a patent to sofosbuvir from Gilead, a US biopharmaceutical company that had last year pledged to make the oral drug available in India and 90 other developing countries at $900...

-Economic and Political Weekly Examining the structural transformation in India and its developed states to know whether they have passed the Lewis turning point, this paper finds that there was slow structural change in labour markets at the national level. But states such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana are on the verge of the Lewis turning point with faster non-farm sector growth, high per capita income, urbanisation,...

-Down to Earth In a Union budget wish list, civil society organisations call for course correction in policy and improving access to healthcare in India The government's focus on improving health indicators stated in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has worked against the aims of universal health coverage, said experts at the National Convention on Union Budget 2015-16 held in delhi on January 8 and 9. They recommended that the focus must...