-Down to Earth Government claims a huge drop in poverty numbers but critical indicators-health, malnutrition and Wages-continue to be grim. So how did the poor fare better? After a long, long time there was good news to splash as media led with the report of a record 21.9 per cent drop in poverty levels. The July 24 newspaper headlines were celebratory as they reported the Planning Commission's findings that poverty rates...

-The Economic Times The state-run Rubber Board is turning to the rural employment guarantee programme to increase India's natural rubber output from the present 9 million tonne a year. With rising global demand for rubber, the board is keen to extend the area under cultivation. It has identified 400,000 hectare in the North East, 100,000 hectare in Odisha and 50,000 hectare each in Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh as areas with potential...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Union government is for the first time mulling a policy to use cash and food incentives to encourage patients with tuberculosis to complete treatment and reduce the risk of spread of drug-resistant TB. The ministry of health and family welfare, concerned at the large number of patients who discontinue free treatment provided by the government, is preparing a proposal to provide free ration and compensation for missed...

-The Hindu What it signifies, what it does not tell us and what it will definitely not be used for Great shrillness has marked the current furore over the Planning Commission's latest poverty estimates. No surprise, therefore, that understanding and wisdom have flowed in an inverse proportion. Surprising and sad, however, is the fact that some political leaders have at times spoken in a manner deeply hurtful to the aam aadmi and...

-IndiaResists.com The ongoing debate between two stalwart economists, Amartya Sen and Jagdish Bhagwati, must be joined by those who understand contemporary realities and challenges in terms altogether different from those of mainstream economists. In a recent (July 27) article in Times of India, Bhagwati's co-author Arvind Panagariya characterizes the differences between the two in the following terms. Sen favours education and health measures as being the first steps to tackle poverty...