-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...

-The Times of India A housewife applying for a housekeeping job in a hotel or a local motor mechanic applying for a post in an automobile company might sound strange. But it's likely to happen with government working on a policy framework to enable people with certain skills to apply for jobs even without formal qualification. Under the 'recognizing prior learning' scheme (which people learn informally), the human resource development (HRD) ministry...

-The Times of India The trade in tendu patta, used for bidi making, is estimated to be worth an annual Rs 20,000 crore and is monopolized by state corporations, contractors, traders and even left-wing extremists. This could change now with the tribal affairs ministry asking states to break the Monopoly of state corporations and let tribals sell it freely.  Coming on the back of his remarks on the Bijapur killings, tribal affairs...

-Down to Earth   Buy an Indian breed from Australia In June last year, we visited Malaysia on the invitation of the country’s oldest and most active consumer action group, The Consumer Association of Penang, to study the livestock production systems and to advise on how these can be transformed into more sustainable and less industrial farming systems. The past 40 years of aggressive industrial growth in Malaysia has seen small-scale peasant agriculture and...

-The Hindustan Times Bollywood star Aamir Khan had two simple prescriptions for a Parliamentary committee to reduce high health costs for citizens. First, make doctors prescribe generic medicines rather than brands. Second, set up a regulator to ensure big pharmaceutical don’t take over smaller ones and monopolise the medicine market. Khan and his team were invited on Thursday by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Commerce headed by BJP MP Shanta Kumar, which...