-Live Mint The deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, in an interview, spoke about the challenges of pushing public health reforms India is likely to finalize a draft Plan document next week to introduce universal health coverage in India. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, spoke in an interview about the challenges of pushing public health reforms with limited resources at hand.  Edited excerpts: * Will the government be able to...

-The Economic Times After one failed attempt in 2009, the Delhi government is making yet another effort to make plastic bags history in Delhi. This time the proposed blanket ban comes with zero tolerance to even plastic used to cover school books, magazines and invitation cards. These are some of the provisions of a proposal of the environment department for imposing a ban on not just sale and use but even...

-The Business Standard Make politicians' asset disclosures clearer, and follow up In an important move towards transparency, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last year reminded his council of ministers to declare their assets, movable and immovable, and said that the declarations would be put up online. Declarations for 2012 are now online and these should be welcome. But they also reveal that many lacunae remain in terms of full and clear disclosure. The...

-The Economic Times As the monsoon plays truant, the tragic face of our agrarian distress, suicide by farmers, is likely to manifest again in several parts of the country. A state like Maharashtra, where large acreages of a cash crop like cotton are grown under rain-fed conditions, is particularly vulnerable to such vagaries of weather and has, for long, remained the 'suicide capital' of the country. There is credible data to show...

-The Times of India The parliamentary committee report on genetically modified (GM) organisms is an attempt to give a quiet burial to biotechnology in India. On behalf of the farmers of India, let me say that this report totally fails to reflect farmers' aspirations, and distorts the scientific significance of biotechnology - including genetic engineering - for the national economy. Instead, it echoes persistent canards by some environmental NGOs. Indian farming suffers...