-The Hindu Making hospitalisation affordable will spell relief, but there is no alternative to strengthening primary health care In 2011, a high-level expert group on universal health coverage reckoned that nearly 70% of government health spending should go to primary health care. The National Health Policy (NHP) 2017 also advocated allocating resources of up to two-thirds or more to primary care as it enunciated the goal of achieving “the highest possible level...

-The Indian Express October-December 2018 is also the second consecutive quarter where growth in gross value added (GVA) from agriculture has been lower in nominal than in real terms. The country’s farm sector output may have grown by just 2.7 per cent year-on-year in October-December 2018, the lowest in 11 quarters. But what should worry the NDA government more than the low increase in “real” terms (i.e. at constant prices) is...

-The Hindu A basic income scheme will deliver benefits to the poor only if it comes on top of public services The idea of a universal basic income (UBI) is gaining ground globally. It has supporters among the political left and right, and among proponents as well as opponents of the free-market economy. A UBI requires the government to pay every citizen a fixed amount of money on a regular basis and...

-Newsclick.in New GDP numbers show the deep agrarian crisis and an economy in doldrums, while unemployment continues to grow. Advance estimates of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the current year 2018-19, and estimates for the third quarter (Sept-Dec 2018) show unmistakeable signs of a slowing economy, despite the flawed method of calculating these estimates. The country’s economy will grow by 7% in the current year which will end this March. Last year...

-The Hindu Govt. cuts FY19 growth estimate to 7%; Q3 growth estimated at six-quarter low; agriculture, manufacturing contribute to slowdown GDP growth slowed for the third consecutive quarter in the October-December 2018 period, according to data released on Thursday. Growth fell to 6.6% in the third quarter, the lowest in the last six quarters. The slowdown was led by agriculture, which is estimated to grow at 2.7%, against the earlier estimate of 3.8%. Data...