-The Indian Express As the toll of human misery and suicide mounts, official estimates of farm losses due to unseasonal rains and hailstorms in March remain controversial, with hasty downward revision. Since these estimates are largely notional, without validation from field visits, such revision smacks of deliberate fiddling. On March 24, the agriculture ministry reported that crops on 18 million hectares — about 30 per cent of the rabi crops —...

-Economic and Political Weekly This paper contributes to the debate on the Draft National Health Policy 2015 by analysing and critiquing some of its key recommendations within the prevailing social, economic, and political context of the country. This policy seems to suggest that strategic purchasing of curative health services from both the public and private sectors can enable India to achieve the goal of "universal healthcare." The draft policy is based...

-Livemint.com Weather and prices continue to haunt modern agriculture and farmers, only 20% of who are covered by crop insurance in our country Two risks that have haunted modern agriculture for decades are weather and prices. Indian farmers have been one of the worst victims of the vagaries of nature and prices. They badly need protection, but less than 20% of them are covered by crop insurance. insurance is an instrument...

-The Hindu Irked Minister puts officials on notice; insurance companies to face action for the fiasco Lucknow: Laxity on the part of officials seems to have impeded the State government’s efforts to ameliorate the sufferings of over 13 lakh farmers who have suffered massive crop loss on account of unseasonal rains and hailstorm in Uttar Pradesh. Thanks to official apathy, coupled with the slow pace of relief work, the distressed farmers have...

-Business Standard When there is an enormous shortage of public hospitals, when state expenditure on health care is abysmally low by any international yardstick, tax money should be used to set up public hospitals Most relatively well-off Indians have got used to the idea of taking out medical insurance policies in order to take care of possible health episodes. It has been a rapidly growing business, doubling in four or five years....