-The Telegraph New Delhi: Patients' rights groups have accused the Centre of trying to use a decade-old programme that delivers inexpensive medicines through government-supported retail outlets to promote the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA) and the All India Drug Action Network (AIDAN) on Monday expressed concern at what they said was the "MISuse of the public-funded Pradhanmantri Bharatiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana for the promotion of one political party". They said...

-The Hindu ‘Appreciative mechanisms for welfare of children living there could be replicated’. The social audit report by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), which exposed the sexual abuse of 34 minor girls at a State-run shelter home in Muzaffarpur, has also pointed out that there are at least seven shelter homes that could, in fact, be models for other such institutions in the State. The 100-page TISS report has not been...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: For decades, the malkhanas in police stations, which store case properties and evidence, have been so poorly organised that legal proceedings have regularly been affected. On many occasions, the case properties have been MISplaced, even stolen. At other times, the cops have wasted months trying to locate evidentiary items. These might now change with Delhi Police set to digitise all malkhanas. After a six-month effort, police...

-The Indian Express The Assam Accord of 1985 began with the assurance that the “government has all along been most anxious to find a satisfactory resolution to the problem of foreigners in Assam.” In the late 1970s, an extraordinary student movement had taken root in Assamese soil. The Mangaldoi constituency, which was voting in a bypoll after the death of its MP Hiralal Patwari, was under the spotlight. The seat, with a...

-Ideas for India Commenting on the concept of evidence-based policy, Jean Drèze argues that the relation between evidence and policy needs further thought. Based on his involvement with social policy in India, he believes that while econoMISts can contribute to more informed policy discussions and public debates they ought to be cautious in offering advice on policy design. Once upon a time, ‘evidence’ was widely confused with randoMISed controlled trials (RCTs). The...