-Down to Earth Shockingly, the state’s infant mortality rate is worse than Jharkhand; it also has the fourth lowest teacher student ratio in the country “Social Development indicators have not been able to keep pace with economic Development in this state of over 60 million people," UNICEF had observed about Gujarat back in 2013. Four years later, Maitreesh Ghatak of London School of Economics writes about Gujarat’s Development model: “When it...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The BJP's victory in the Gujarat elections, hard-fought as it was, points clearly to the possible direction of the Budget that finance minister Arun Jaitley will present in February. Given its setbacks in non-urban areas, the big focus of the ruling party will be on agriculture and the rural economy, apart from a likely boost in minimum support prices (MSP). FM Arun Jaitley told ET the results...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A central scheme for skill training and jobs for rural youths has been witnessing below-target placement levels for the past five years, with the government's failure to answer key questions suggesting it is not monitoring the programme closely. Most of the training under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana is provided by NGOs - who are paid for it - and a few state government institutes. Their...

-Scroll.in A year after its launch, the new process that handles the recovery of crores of rupees of unpaid corporate debt is shrouded in opaqueness. India’s new insolvency and bankruptcy regime has been functioning for a year without any disclosure norms or mandatory transparency regulations. In the first year of its application, the regime is already dealing with more than 450 cases that add up to thousands of crores of rupees...

-The Times of India CHANDIGARH: Agri marketing in Punjab is unimaginable without commission agents (arhtiyas). But a section of farmers in the state are beginning to respond to farmer producer organizations' (FPOs) attempt at marketing as an alternative to the traditional direct selling. The move is also expected to help farmers break the wheat-paddy cycle and take to growing vegetables. A study sponsored by National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD)...