-The Times of India Mumbai: In an audit of 11 leading private charitable hospitals in the city, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has found that seven were wrongly billing poor patients and charging hefty deposits during admission. Most hospitals reserved less than the stipulated number of beds for the poor, thereby depriving many of quality healthcare. The charity commissioner too has been pulled up for bad implementation of...

-The Hindu Mihir Shah on the importance of an integrated policy for groundwater and surface water Mihir Shah, water policy expert, member of the erstwhile Planning Commission and in recent months head of several committees tasked with reforming India’s water laws, says existing institutions are inadequate to address our water needs. Which is why, he says in an e-mail interview, India needs an overarching water commission. Excerpts: * The proposed National Water Commission...

-The Indian Express India should learn from China and start with liberalisation of rural land, labour and capital markets before attempting bigger things. Independence Day has come and gone with its usual mix of celebrations, pride and ruminations on how things could be better. Interestingly, several media commentaries tagged the event with the 25th anniversary of economic reforms, launched in 1991 around the same time of the year. They largely dwelt on the theme...

Rising prices of dal: How to deal with it? The 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly declared 2016 as the International Year of Pulses. In India, however, ordinary citizens are under enormous duress due to the skyrocketing prices of dal/ lentils since the last one year. The website of Price Monitoring Cell of the Department of Consumer Affairs shows that dal prices varied across places. For example, the...

-The Hindu We would be "forced" to judicially intervene, warns the apex court. New Delhi: In what may be the sharpest warning to the NDA government, the Supreme Court on Friday asked whether the Narendra Modi government is trying to bring the entire judicial institution to a "grinding halt" by sitting on recommendations of the Collegium for appointment and transfer of judges to High Courts across the country. Chief Justice of India T.S.Thakur...