-TelanganaToday.com India’s food subsidy programmes have the capacity to respond to increased demand. Thoughtful adjustment would reap large-scale benefits. Covid-19 lockdowns aggravated food deprivation in India. The pandemic also revealed opportunities to expand the country’s food subsidy programmes. India’s Public Distribution System (PDS) offers subsidised foodgrains to eligible households. Public pressure during Covid-19 lockdowns led to a brief expansion in the number of beneficiaries in States such as Delhi. Though temporary, the expansion...

-The New Indian Express A significant share, almost two-thirds of OOP expenses, are for purchasing outpatient care, especially medicines. NEW DELHI: Household Out-Of-Pocket (OOP) expenses on health services, especially medicines, continue to push over 55 million people in India into poverty, with over 18 per cent of households incurring catastrophic levels of health expenditures annually, says a WHO report. Despite India’s billing as the ‘pharmacy of the world,’ its population’s access to medicines...

-Scroll.in Warming up to Russia may help as Growth forecasts have been cut and fuel prices are rising but could sabotage the tightrope New Delhi is walking with the West. The Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee meeting will kick off on April 6. Much has happened on the politico-economic landscape since the central bank last met and spoke. For starters, Growth targets are seeing some salami-slicing of their own. On...

-TheWire.in Pradeep Multani, president of the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, talks about how the shortage of raw materials and high input prices are posing a challenge to small businesses in India. Mumbai: Inflation pressures are looming ominously on the Indian business horizon. While the margins of large domestic and multinational corporations have come under pressure, they still have the balance sheet heft to absorb raw material price shocks and the...

-Livemint.com Top packaged consumer goods companies had also flagged slowing rural demand in the December quarter, citing inflationary pressures NEW DELHI: Top honchos of large fast moving consumer goods companies have flagged slowdown in rural demand in the March quarter, citing high inflation across products and commodities. Analysts Manoj Menon, Aniket Sethi, and Karan Bhuwania at brokerage ICICI Securities interviewed chief executive officers of companies such as Marico Ltd., Dabur India, and Tata...