-The Hindu Which are India's most effective subsidies, the ones that best reach the poor? Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian devoted considerable space in the Economic Survey released on Friday to subsidies, how much they cost, whom they really go to, and how leaky they are. In terms of cost, the combined subsidy for rice and wheat clearly accounts for the largest share, a third of India's total subsidy bill. Please click here...

-The Hindu Allocation has remained same since 2007. Social sector spending has flatlined over the past few years, and massive spending expansions are required to keep Prime Minister Narendra Modi's key promises, Budget data show. Social sector spending - expenditure on health, education, water supply, sanitation and housing among others - has doubled over the past 10 years as a proportion of the Union government's total expenditure. But the big expansion came between...

-The Hindu Just 39 of the 568 Ministers in State govts are women When no women joined Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal in taking the oath of office on Saturday, Delhi joined the ranks of seven other States with no women Ministers. In the rest of the States too, women representation in the Ministries is low, and often restricted to certain portfolios. With all State Assemblies put together, 360 of the country's...

-The Hindu More men than women drove the increase in voter turnout in the 2015 Assembly elections in the Capital, and the gender gap among voters widened slightly, an analysis of data shows. According to numbers released by the Delhi Chief Electoral Officer on Sunday, 6.36 lakh more men voted in 2015 than in 2013. For women, the increase was 4.71 lakh voters. So while the male voter turnout was 67.64 per...

-The Hindu Are political advertisements in newspapers on the day of an election legally permissible? India's leading political parties appear to be operating in a legal grey area, a position of ambiguity that they themselves have perpetuated. Section 126 of the Representation of People Act (1950) prohibits political parties from taking out television ads from 48 hours before an election. It does not, however, explicitly mention the print media. The relevant...