-The Telegraph New Delhi: The rules for price caps on 348 medicines imposed by the central government last year provide drug companies "escape routes" and promise little relief to consumers, a report released today has warned. The report from the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), an academic institution, has also cautioned that the Drug Price Control Order (DPCO) rules will encourage the growth of irrational combinations of drugs that remain outside...

-The Hindu     Nearly three years after the government began experimenting with Aadhaar-based payments in Jharkhand, it has not been able to start disbursing payments to beneficiaries at their doorstep Jharkhand was one of five pilot States chosen for an Aadhaar-enabled payment system (AEPS). Beginning with Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) payments in select blocks in four districts in 2012, AEPS added pension and scholarship schemes and the Janani Suraksha...

-Live Mint Mint examines why millions of women are missing from farms, factories, colleges, and offices in India, which has one of the lowest ratios of working women in the world Mumbai: Every monsoon, minivans ferrying women labourers can be seen making their way from the small sleepy town of Wardha to Waifad village, 18 kilometres away. Urban workers from Wardha have come to occupy an integral part of Waifad's farm...

-The Business Standard The recent US-India friction over trade is being driven by Big Pharma Apart from the deterioration of the business environment generally, which impacts both domestic and foreign investors, retrospective taxation has figured most prominently in the media as the principal cause of growing scepticism among foreign investors. Entirely missing from the discourse has been an equally potent factor with wholly foreign origins: the hijacking of the economic policy...

-The Business Standard Crimes against women are rising due to poor urban design and governance Urban crimes, particularly those directed at women, have been a cause of growing outrage in India over the last couple of years. Given the frequency and nature of some of these crimes, the outrage is entirely justified. But why are we witnessing such a sharp increase in crimes against women? Self-styled social Activists and intellectuals love...