-The Business Standard   A seven-point agenda to fix India's public services, and overcome poorly designed systems India's Achilles Heel remains its inability to deliver public services. India's aspiration to be a global economic power will be unrealised if this remains unsolved. Why is this problem so particularly acute? Is it political interference and corruption, poorly designed programmes and weak administration? Or a much deeper cultural problem of aversion to collective action, often...

-PTI   The report said conditions in displacement camps remain dire across the country The United Nations: India at the end of last year had about 526,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), uprooted from their homes due to communal violence and armed conflict, according to a new UN-backed report.   "India continued to experience new and protracted displacement during 2013 as a result of communal violence and armed conflict with a total of at least 526,000...

-The Indian Express   Available data suggests the programme has been effective in reducing rural poverty and gender discrimination Nirmala Sitharaman's misinformation (‘How not to run a programme', IE, May 9) on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which employs one in every four Indian rural households every year, is disappointing. Consider these facts. For the first time in over two decades, the increase in rural consumption (a proxy indicator...

-The Indian Express   From high farm growth to wages for the disadvantaged, even their employment levels, Gujarat comes out on top. Both the opinion polls and the bookies suggest that Narendra Modi will be the next prime minister of India. There is a constant but healthy debate in the media about the likely pros and cons of a Modi administration. For each assertion made by the BJP, there is a counter presented....

-The Hindu The Polavaram multipurpose project has faced rough weather with non-compliance of environmental assessment and large-scale displacement The Union Cabinet's resolution last week - to clear the proposal for constituting the Polavaram Project Authority (PPA) - has attracted cautious criticism from the Odisha government. With the general election in full swing and Telangana set to come into being, it is obvious that political parties would leave no stone unturned to gain...