-Economic and Political Weekly The runaway growth in states of subsidised solar pumps, which provide quality energy at near-zero marginal cost, can pose a bigger threat of groundwater over-exploitation than free power has done so far. The best way to meet this threat is by paying farmers to "grow" solar power as a remunerative cash crop. Doing so can reduce pressure on aquifers, cut the subsidy burden on electricity companies, reduce...
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Activists and concerned citizens oppose budget cuts in social sector
-Press Release from Centre for Budget Analysis (CBGA) and Jan Awaaz New Delhi, 29 November 2014: There have been a number of media reports recently around possible cuts in Union Budget allocations for the current fiscal 2014-15 in case of social sector programmes, i.e. reductions in allocations in the Revised Estimates (RE) for 2014-15 as compared to the Budget Estimates (BE) that were made in July this year. This issue deserves...
More »Steps Taken by Govt. to Accelerate Pace of Reduction for MMR to Achieve MDG Goals
-Press Information Bureau/ Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Under the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5, the target is to reduce Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) by three quarters between 1990 & 2015. Based on the UN Inter-Agency Expert Group's MMR estimates in the publication "Trends in Maternal Mortality: 1990 to 2013", the target for MMR is estimated to be 140 per 1,00,000 live births by the year 2015 taking a...
More »Billing for wallet shock -Digbijay Mishra
-Business Standard Indian and other generic drug firms face prospect of US legislature debating compensation for undue price rises Indian generic drug makers might, if a proposed US law comes about, need to pay a rebate to the federal Medicaid programme there when prices of their medications outpace inflation. A Bill is to be introduced in the US Senate by a member, aimed to cushion the impact on taxpayers in this manner...
More »Child Malnutrition declining, though not fast enough
There is some good news amid gloom! Preliminary findings of a survey in India as quoted by the Global Nutrition Report 2014 shows that prevalence of malnutrition among children aged below 5 years has come down between 2005-06 and 2013-14, even though we have a long way to go. (See links and bullet points below). The survey on malnutrition and hunger, called the Rapid Survey on Children (RSOC), was conducted after...
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