-The Hindu Strategic shifts are needed in the level of government control on the financing and provision of health India spends close to 5% of its GDP on health. While this may appear low when compared to 18% of the U.S., data show that Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries spend 8-11%, middle-income countries close to 6%, and India’s peers, the lower-middle-income countries 4.5%. By these measures, India’s health-care spending,...

-The Hindu Social security cover for all, even informal workers, is an ambitious target for the Centre and stumbling blocks pave its path. The Union government on Thursday proposed an ambitious law to provide social security net to the 47.41 crore-strong workforce of the country. The proposed code on ‘Social Security and Welfare’ intends to make a drastic shift in the social security framework of the country from an employment-based approach to a...

-Outlook In a pulses-importing country, a bumper crop brings little cheer to those who cultivate pulses. Here’s why In India, a bumper crop is not ­always an occasion to celebrate, as farmers have often found to their cost whether it is potato, onion or grapes. Pulses, which have always been far short of domestic needs, are facing a similar fate this year, with mandi prices in many parts of the country far...

-The Hindu Business Line The effectiveness of the revised Maternity Benefit Act depends on its proper implementation India now lags only Canada and Norway in the level of maternity benefits such as paid time off work extended to women. India’s statutory maternity leave is now the third best in the world and is certainly something to be proud of. However, the law is no assurance that the situation of working women will...

-Hindustan Times Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh’s first “cashless” village is actually “waterless”, prompting villagers to adopt a novel initiative of sourcing water through rooftop water pipes from tubewells located in their agricultural fields 1,000 to 2,000 feet away. Thick black water pipes running over the rooftops and treetops in the village, coming from the agriculture fields might be mistaken as electric wires at first sight. “We don’t care about cashless status as our...