-The Hindu Business Line Discussions are on with insurance companies: official New Delhi: The government is considering the launch of a universal health insurance product, a government official said, adding that the Department of Financial Services has already held discussions with insurance companies for the launch of such a product. The government is also considering ways to incentivise providers to encourage good health rather than hospitalisation. “So far, health schemes are pushing for hospitalisation...

-Outlook Even the worst-governed states can improve their PDS and ensure grain for the poorest. Look at Madhya Pradesh. THE National Food Security Act (NFSA),  2013, is not in very good health. Two years after it came into force, just a few states are implementing it. Others are still struggling with the identification of eligible households, public distribution system (PDS) reforms and other prepaRations. Yet, recent evidence suggests that some states...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: In significant progress made by states to check leakage of foodgrains under the public distribution system (PDS), 26 states and Union Territories have completed 100% digitization of Ration cards in the past one year. Six states have digitized the supply chain for better monitoring of grain moving from godowns to the doorstep of consumers.  According to food ministry sources, the overall digitization of Ration cards across...

-The Hindu Business Line No crop diversification efforts will work so long as free electricity offsets the costs of pumping out groundwater Subsidies have for long been a necessary evil, a vote-bank silver bullet. But its relevance stands challenged in today’s increasingly market-oriented economic order. The recent US declaRation of giving differential treatment to developing countries, with regard to farm subsidies, brings up the long standing issue of slashing subsidies that have...

-The Hindu The programme reduced poverty by up to 32 per cent and prevented 14 million people from falling into poverty. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) reduced poverty by up to a third and gave a large number of women their first opportunity to earn cash income, a new research has found. Officials from the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) and the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER)...