-The Business Standard Hopeful of directional change in India-China trade relations With the World Trade Organization (WTO) reconvening this month, India is hopeful its concerns on public stockholding for food security purposes will be considered this time, even as the government on Wednesday said it is not the only country is demanding an early resolution to the issue. "Today, the environment is far more in favour of India. People are able to understand...

-Deccan Chronicle On August 15, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, a financial inclusion scheme that will ensure that at least one member of each and every family in India not only has a bank account with a debit card, but is also provided an overdraft facility of Rs 5,000, a life insurance policy of Rs 30,000 and accident insurance cover of Rs 1,00,000. On August...

-The Indian Express International experience points to the dangers in moving towards a system of health insurance coverage. Improving government services is the answer. Last month, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan offered a glimpse into the new government's universal health assurance scheme, of which insurance will be an important component. Health insurance is also part of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, the NDA government's financial inclusion programme. But international experience does...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The government plans to come out with a policy on intellectual property rights (IPR) within a few months, with developed nations such as the US and the EU raising concerns over the country's patent rules. "India does not have an IPR policy. This is the first time we are coming out with a policy. IPR policy issues have been hanging fire for quite a long time," commerce and...

-The Indian Express More than four years after the RTE was passed, the state has no handle on the numbers of out-of-school children. The recently released report of the Global Initiative on Out-of-School Children, based on a situational analysis of India, opens a Pandora's box on data and methodological issues that plague the estimation of out-of-school children in India. As the report reveals, there is a multiplicity of definitions, sources of data...