-Live Mint There is no dearth of advisors for a government considered to be in the grip of a policy paralysis and whose prime minister is dubbed an “underachiever”. In this season of India-bashing, US President Barack Obama spared some time from his election campaign and offered some pearly words of wisdom on the Indian economy. This came at a time when in his own backyard, thousands of people marched in...

  -India Education Diary The Right to Education Act (RTE), enacted in 2009, has ushered in hope for school education in the country. It is the primary responsibility of the Government to ensure implementation of the Act. Being part of the concurrent list, the Central and state governments are both responsible for ensuring effective implementation of the Act. There has been significant improvement in terms of the number of primary schools, largely...

A cure for India’s health care ills is within reach provided there is political will In most developed — and many developing — countries today, a 12-year school education and universal health coverage (UHC) are the two primary responsibilities of the state. India has failed miserably on both counts. Let us look at some of the problems of medical and health care: • Fifty years ago, when there was no commercialisation of...

-The Economic Times The crisis of the euro, a current account deficit of over 4%, double-digit inflation, corruption in governance and a failing political system. It would not be unfair to say that these factors have combined in varying degrees at different times to lead to the conclusion that the globally-acclaimed India growth story seems to be heading for an unhappy ending. Many have labelled this - unfairly, I think - as...

-The Times of India Persons displaced by land acquisition would be paid an extra 12% of the cost of land every year, in what is seen as the government's bid to sweeten the deal after insisting on state's role in buying land for private parties.  The proposed changes to the Land Acquisition Bill add 12% of market value of the land acquired to the package of compensation and solatium to the evacuee....