-The Hindu Providing people with a modest basic income instead of subsidies would save public revenue With oil prices falling, it was perhaps a good time to fade out fuel subsidies. All subsidies are inefficient and distortionary, and most are regressive. The same could be said of costly public works schemes as well. By contrast, the debate on direct benefit transfers has moved into a more sensible phase, with the posturing criticism of...

-The Hindustan Times According to Nabanna sources, a rough average of working days created under MGNREGA in Bengal during the last three years shows that the state ranks a lowly16th among all states on this count. On the basis of the same average during the last three years in terms of working days created during the same period, the figure for Bengal is much lower than the national average. During the period...

-Down to Earth Health experts blame Centre's over-emphasis on women's sterilisation for the Chhattisgarh tragedy THERE WAS nothing right about the sterilisation camp held on November 8 in Chhattisgarh's Takhatpur block of Bilaspur district. An overambitious government doctor-with unsterilised equipment and virtually no manpower-set out to conduct laparoscopic tubectomy on 83 women in an abandoned private hospital. The mass sterilisation led to the death of 13 women and left others critically ill. They were...

-ETV/ News 18 Claiming that the excessive use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides destroyed Punjab in the two decades, volunteers from Punjab - once an agri-role model-have cautioned Madhya Pradesh against the same. These volunteers from Kheti Virasat Mission - a group of volunteer activists from different fields working in Punjab for promoting organic farming, said this while participating in Vikalp Mela as part of Bhopal gas tragedy's 30th anniversary events in...

-The Indian Express New Delhi: "This government is trying to snatch away our rights, of both employment and land. We have come all the way to fight such injustice. Several people in my village voted for this government hoping they would improve our lives but they are doing just the opposite," said Lal Singh from Rajsamand district in Rajasthan. At a time when the NDA government's proposals to bring changes to some...