-Down to Earth Expresses concern over alcohol brands being advertised in violation of rules India is emerging as the favourite destination for alcohol promotion of marketing companies. Their new targets are women and youth, who at present comprise a very small percentage of alcohol consumers in India. These are the observations made by a report-Alcohol Marketing and Regulatory Policy Environment in India-put out by the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI). It...

-The Hindu Kochi: The State government's ambitious project for an Aadhaar validation-based public distribution system (PDS) would have to address critical technical issues before it could be rolled out. The system put to trial, which the civil supplies department would like to call a pre-pilot phase, in six ration shops in Thiruvananthapuram more than a month back has thrown up technical challenges, which took the department through a steep learning curve. "Based on...

-Economic and Political Weekly Knowing full well that the private motor car is more a bane than a boon in terms of the various costs it entails, the time for policymakers in India to encourage greater use of public transport and non-motorised modes is past. Illustrating the politics of privileging car users over the vast majority that uses public transport like buses, this paper points to the vicissitudes the bus rapid...

-Economic and Political Weekly     The Twelfth Five-Year Plan aims to foster more inclusive and sustainable growth. Urban transport finds mention in its chapters on sustainable development, environment, and urban development, which focus not only on aspects of public transport, but also urban planning and governance. Identifying the three main themes that emerge from the Plan's recommendations, this paper takes a critical look at them. It comments on what appears to be...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The price caps imposed by the Indian government on 348 drugs earlier this year have created only an illusion of control, keeping many medicines for conditions ranging from asthma to diabetes and heart disease beyond price regulations, experts said today. The price control order issued by the department of pharmaceuticals in May has led to a 22 per cent reduction in the average cost of some 250 medicines,...