-Down to Earth Nearly 83 per cent medicines out of the ambit of price control policy, thus making them out of reach for most patients, say two recent reports Indicating failure of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Policy (NPPP), 2012 and the Drugs Price Control Order (DPCO), 2013, two recently-released reports have stated that medicines are still not accessible and affordable for the citizens of the country. The reports that were jointly released...

-Press Information Bureau (Ministry of Agriculture) The two-day National Conference on Agriculture for Kharif Campaign has come out with detailed strategy for maximising crop production during the coming kharif season. The focus will be on ensuring timely availability of fertilizers and quality seed and also sufficient credit to farmers. Based on inputs from States and the Fertilizer Ministry, it is established that sufficient quantities of fertilizers and seeds are available in...

-The Hindu There are obviously several dimensions to India's recent agricultural performance which Finance Minister P. Chidambaram in his budget speech termed as "stellar". A week before the budget, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar had announced that foodgrain production is on course to touch a new record of 263 million tonnes, up from 255.36 million tonnes last year. The good performance is seen with regard to other crops too. Estimates of...

-The Business Standard The state was the sixth-worst during the year, according to the Annual Survey of Industries data A set of government data released recently seems to puncture the Narendra Modi-led Gujarat government's claim that the state's industrial performance has been robust. According to the data fron the Annual Survey of Industries (ASI), the industrial growth rate for the state's organised sector slumped below one per cent in 2011-12. And, in fact,...

-The Business Standard Expenses such as employment guarantees and loan waivers are, in effect, subsidies that are classified differently in government accounts Over the last few years, the government announced many policy initiatives that purportedly help the weaker sections of our society. Schemes initiated under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) or the distribution of free and affordable food items under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) are examples...