-The Times of India MUMBAI: Turf war between Big Pharma and generic companies, which was largely restricted to exorbitantly priced life-saving drugs for cancer and HIV, is now spilling over to other chronic ailments like diabetes, and threatening to change dynamics of the nearly Rs 70,000 crore Indian pharma market. Triggering a full-blown patent fight with US-based Merck, domestic generic company Glenmark has launched a more affordable version of the multinational's blockbuster...

-The Times of India BJP-led Madhya Pradesh dislodges champion Bihar from its numerouno position in terms of highest growth of gross state domestic product. The provisional data released by the Central Statistical Organisation for 2012-13 for states shows Bihar's growth has slowed, slipping from an impressive 13.26% last year to a single digit 9.48% this year as against 10% clocked by MP. Other backward states have maintained their upward trajectory, with Jharkhand...

-The Indian Express Of late, there has been much public debate around the effectiveness of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), particularly on its targeting of the poor and the socioeconomic profile of its beneficiaries (most notably in this newspaper). It is important to look at these claims closely, not as much to counter them but as to present the real picture that has been undermined by often-unsubstantiated...

-The Times of India BANGALORE: India's burgeoning population appears to be both a problem and an advantage. Very soon, the southern states are likely to stare at an un-Indian situation: a shrinking populace, owing to a sharp dip in the fertility rate of women. Analyzing the 2011 Census data, the Population Research Centre of the Bangalore-based Institute for Social and Economic Change found that many southern districts, a significant number of them...

-PTI Women in India are more likely to get prenatal care when pregnant with male babies, according to a groundbreaking study that has implications for girls' health and survival in patriarchal societies. The study by Leah Lakdawala of Michigan State University and Prashant Bharadwaj of the University of California, San Diego, suggests sex discrimination begins in the womb in male-dominated societies such as India. "It paints a pretty dire picture of what's happening,"...