-The Hindu Business Line Says more responses on ‘Free Basics’ than actual Consultation Paper The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has been stumped by the nature of responses it received on its discussion for ‘Differential Pricing for Data Services’. Rather than expressing views around ‘differential pricing for data services’, majority of the responses have centred around comments on Facebook’s ‘Free Basics’ campaign for free internet for all. Not satisfied with such ‘invalid’ answers,...

-The Hindu The Modi government’s policy is choking domestic demand at a time when global demand is also weak. This is hardly a recipe for double-digit growth. The title seems provocative. After all, for the last several months, we have all heard that India is now the fastest growing large economy in the world. The Finance Minister keeps assuring us that the country’s economic revival is on a firm footing and that...

-Livemint.com NSSO report on land and livestock holdings estimates that around 95 million hectares of land was classified as operational holdings in 2012-13 New Delhi: How much land is actually cultivated in India? Depending on the data source, you might have to give or take the total area of France. Consider this: The latest National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) report on land and livestock holdings estimates that around 95 million hectares of...

-The Times of India Cigarette consumption in India is falling steadily even as the number of women smokers is rising, making it home to the second largest number of female smokers after the United States. According to the latest data on cigarette consumption given by the health ministry in Parliament, the consumption in 2014-15 was 93.2 billion sticks — 10 billion less than in 2012-13. The production of cigarettes too fell from...

-Livemint.com Once the entire population is covered, it will be the newborns who will get added and allocated Aadhaar numbers—a continuous process New Delhi: The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) plans to formalize the enrolment process of children under the Aadhaar programme. “We plan to identify clusters of 5-7 schools or anganwadis (day care centres) and set up permanent Aadhaar enrolment centres,” an UIDAI official said, requesting anonymity. With enrolment of adults...