-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court told the Centre on Thursday that it must file its response in four weeks to a PIL by NGO 'Common Cause' seeking permission for private FM radio stations and community radio services to broadcast news. Appearing for the petitioner, advocate Prashant Bhushan told a bench of Justice T S Thakur and Justice D Y Chandrachud that the government on one hand permitted private...

-Down to Earth Government’s policy decisions and ground reports are in conflict with official data on sowing, production and agriculture insurance The Centre’s claim of 94 million metric tonnes (MT) (2015-16) of wheat production, good sowing acreage and success of agriculture insurance scheme is not in sync with reality as government’s own data do not match agriculture ministry’s claims.   The data related to increased acreage, bumper production and success of agriculture...

-Down to Earth A high level UN panel on Access to Medicines wants members to make full use of TRIPS flexibilities to protect public health If ever India needed a clear endorsement of its laws on intellectual property rights (IPRs) and their application in meeting public health priorities, it has come from the highest quarters. The report of the UN Secretary General’s High Level Panel (HLP) on Access to Medicines has, directly...

-The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement demonetising high denomination notes on November 8, 2016, will do little to address the prime objective of flushing out black money but will adversely affect the economy in the short term, especially the informal sector, which is predominant in India, says M. Govinda Rao, a Member of the Fourteenth Finance Commission and Emeritus Professor, National Institute of Public...

-The Hindu Business Line Thiruvananthapuram: All available indications now point to the washout of the North-East monsoon in the Peninsula, after the drubbing it received during the preceding South-West monsoon. With half of November gone and no prospects of any major pick-up in rain during the rest of the month, there is little that the last month of December can possibly bring in. What looked a like a brief revival in activity early...