-The Indian Express India's ranking on human development is a reminder that the state is shrinking where it must not. India has improved, but only just, on the human development index, the United Nations' composite measure for overall well-being that takes into account life expectancy, income and education. According to the UN Human Development Report 2014 released this week, India ranks 135 on a list of 186 countries. It has become...

-The Hindu   India is among the world champions of social underspending. Without enlightened social policies, growth mania is unlikely to deliver more under the new government than it did under the previous one Few people today remember the letter written on August 7, 2013 by Mr. Narendra Modi, then Chief Minister of Gujarat, to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. In this letter, available on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) website, Mr. Modi criticised...

-The Hindu Business Line   Small farmers in Jharkhand are growing more money and seeing better health, thanks to vegetables Indian farmers have often been perceived as lacking in initiative, but the latest developments on the farm front belie that stereotype. Not only have they shown initiative, they have started a quiet revolution. The phenomenon can be summed up in one word: vegetables. Small farmers, reeling from recurring droughts and declining productivity of staple...

-DNA   In the midst of the euphoria in the capital markets, after a strong mandate for Narendra Modi, the loud cries of wailing farm widows have been lost in the noise and cacophony that followed. To my mind, this is the biggest policy paralysis that afflicts the country. So when I heard Modi speak at the Central Hall of Parliament the other day: "Ours will be a government that thinks, works and...

-Down to Earth   As India elects new government, the 12th Five Year Plan may no longer be pro-poor MUCH hope is pinned on the 12th Five Year Plan that was declared as the first health Plan by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, while drafting the Plan, also termed it "pro-poor" and promised the maximum budget for social welfare schemes. But as the Plan comes into force this...