-The Indian Express Why the proposed national minimum wage is the wrong answer to questions of unemployment and poverty The recent national labour conference - a trade union love fest with little real employer participation - demanded a national minimum wage. The trade union demand is a predictable positioning of narrow self-interest as national interest but the government's acceptance of their demand is unfair, delusional and economically stupid. Unfair, because it pampers a...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: Top-selling blood pressure drugs and antibiotics could become a lot cheaper as the government plans to notify price caps for 51 essential drugs early next week under a new drug price control order that was enforced last month. Under this second lot of notifications by the National Pharma Pricing Authority, the brands selling the most expensive antibiotics would have to cut their prices by 30-60%. For instance, the...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: A United Nations (UN) report has warned India that it is at greater risk by opting for public private partnership (PPP) mode of investment for raising its public infrastructure where the government has less control over its executing private partners and the latter has little interest in long term safety of the projects. A UN study, the Global Assessment Report (GAR) on disaster risk reduction, released...

-The Hindu Even as the Union government rejected reports of shortage of tuberculosis drugs, saying fresh stocks will arrive by July-end, World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday asked India to consider changing the regimen from intermittent to daily doses. One of the challenges in anti-TB drugs procurement is that only a few manufacturers produce the particular regimen used by India's programme, which is of intermittent schedule. "WHO currently recommends governments to consider...

-The Times of India CHENNAI: A tight vigil against diversion of subsidized fuel meant for domestic use seems to be paying off. The consumption of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), commonly called cooking gas, has started to dip since government capped sale of subsidized cylinders to every household and for the first time ever, sales have fallen for two successive months in comparison to the corresponding period of the previous year. Consumption...