-The Telegraph New Delhi: India's poorest and socially underprivileged people seem to have benefited the least from a set of government programmes launched over the past decade to reduce personal expenses on health care, research suggests. A team of health economists has found that the financial burden of health care on India's poorest 20 per cent, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Muslims has outpaced that on the richest 20 per cent and...

-The Business Standard In a country where 35 to 40 per cent of food is not consumed, the government urgently needs to reduce wastage to an acceptable level By current estimates, India's total population will be similar to China's by 2028, 1.45 billion. By 2050, India's population is expected to reach 1.7 billion, which will then be equivalent to nearly that of China and the US combined. A fundamental question then...

-The Deccan Herald The government will not reduce subsidy on food items, fertilisers and development schemes in the current financial year starting April from what was paid in 2013-14, Minister of State for Finance Nirmala Sitharaman said. "The government does not plan to cut subsidies given in schemes like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and National Food Security Act," the minister said in reply to a question in the Rajya...

-The Hindu India must devise a demographic policy to separately meet the requirements of the young, middle-aged and elderly The Census data released recently show that unemployment in the country, especially among the youth, is very high, averaging nearly 20 per cent for the age group of 15-24 years. In some States like Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, the unemployment rate is above 25 per...

-The Hindu Business Line The Rangarajan panel has added to the confusion. Let's have one final committee to set things right There is constant confusion in India over BPL (below poverty line) figures proffered by different agencies. The latest is the debate over the Rangarajan Committee's estimates, as against the assessment of the Tendulkar Committee. The difference in their estimates is due to variation in the parameters adopted. In other words, the definition...