-Frontline   The United Nation's MDG report 2014 shows that despite India's significant economic progress, around one-third of the world's extremely poor people reside in the country. IT is raining development goals. As the period for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) draws to a close next year, discussions around these goals and what should replace them have reached fever pitch, with national governments, international organisations and representatives of civil society participating in them. Of...

-The Business Standard Ending open defecation by 2019 will require changing minds, not just allocating money to build latrines for people that will either go unused or not be built at all During Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Independence Day speech, we learned that his Swachch Bharat Mission to eliminate open defecation in India by Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary, would begin in less than two months on October 2. What was...

-The Hindu   The reassuring message in the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana is that in pursuing its economic objectives, the government wants to accord an important role to the public sector even while relying on market mechanisms The goal is hard to achieve. It is costly and unviable. It will create huge stresses in the banking system. The Narendra Modi government's Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (JDY), an ambitious scheme for financial...

- Economic and Political Weekly Universalising health coverage is the current goal of the health service system in India. Tax-funded insurance for poor families is the method chosen for attaining this objective. The Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana was rolled out in 2008 for households below the poverty line, enabling them to access health services in the public and private sectors. However, experience from different countries shows tax-funded insurance systems work well...

-The Hindu Hyderabad: Small, marginal farmers will continue to dominate Indian agriculture with their number and share in the holdings and cultivated area increasing. They will go in for improved crops and agricultural practices bearing the risks of rising costs, volatile commodity market and difficulties in accessing inputs. "Their role in the food security of the country is certain. But what is uncertain is their security," said Prof. D. Narasimha Reddy, ICSSR...