-The Indian Express Punjab is a case study in agricultural and economic mismanagement in India From the breadbasket of India, Punjab has become a basket-case economy. Endowed with ample water and good soil, Punjab’s happy, progressive people had a dream that is now a distant memory. Punjab’s decline started with its trifurcation. In its bid to establish a separate identity, the poli-tical establishment obsessed over a religious-political agenda and steered the state...

-The Hindu Business Line How the Indian State metamorphosed from protector of the poor to facilitator of the private health industry If there is correlation between two incidents of the Central Government announcing cuts in the health budget and dengue patients being refused treatment in Delhi’s private hospitals, it is rarely discussed in the ongoing media debate on the subject. A new collection of researched essays edited by public health scholar Imrana...

-Economic and Political Weekly Independence of the judiciary is not the issue in the current stand-off; it is control over appointments. The decision of the Supreme Court striking down the Constitution 99th Amendment and the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) marks a high confrontation level between the executive and the judiciary. One of the first actions of the Narendra Modi government was to bring into being the NJAC to make appointments to...

-The Times of India VIJAYAWADA: Gradual decline in the overall cropped area casts a shadow over the state government's ambitious target of achieving double digit growth. Although Andhra Pradesh registered 12.52 per cent in the first quarter of 2015-16, it is quite unlikely that the target will become a reality in the long run, say experts and peasant leaders. Lending credence to such worries, agriculture and allied sectors (Rs 9,854 crore)...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government is planning an innovative strategy to use the approximately 4.5 lakh engineering and polytechnic seats that stay vacant every year to teach skill training courses. The plan, which is at a preliminary stage with approvals needed to make it actionable, aims to plug the skills gap, provide options for youth who might be falling out of any kind of professional or academic training, and...