-The Week Manorama Online Broken hearts float down the Bhakra Main Line canal. Broken by the endless struggle with the land, with the weather, with the creditor. Broken by broken promises, broken by the honour they lost, broken enough to kill themselves. And, at the sluice gate at Khanauri village they slow down, looking up with unseeing eyes. And, from the bridge across the canal, the beating hearts they broke look...

-The Hindu The Planning Commission needed to be returned to its first purposes, to its transparent and audacious planning for an India progressing without old enervations and new injustices to prosperity. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. The 18th century nursery rhyme, its original probably a riddle, is loved for the one image it invokes - a great fall. The picture of a dumpy egg, of a being...

-Press Information Bureau/ Ministry of Finance The Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley said that Varishtha Pension Bima Yojana (VPBY) will benefit the vulnerable section of society with limited resources as it will provide monthly pension ranging from Rs 500/ to Rs 5,000/ per month to senior citizens of the country. The Union Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley was speaking after re-launching the Varishtha Pension Bima Yojana (VPBY) here today on...

-Down to Earth The fracas over India's refusal to meet the deadline on trade facilitation exposes rich nations' double standards NOTHING HAS exposed the double standards at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) than the current uproar over the implementation of two agreements at the global trade policing organisation. One, termed Public Stockholding for Food Security Purposes, protects the food security concerns of millions of the poor and the livelihood of millions of...

-The Business Standard What must replace the Planning Commission An announcement of note in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Independence Day speech from the ramparts of Red Fort was the much-anticipated end of the Planning Commission. A full 23 years after India ushered in reforms that reduced emphasis on central planning, the crucially important organisation of the statist era will finally be dismantled. Both as signalling and as policy, this needs to be...