-The Economic Times It was in the mid-eighties that former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi said if the Centre released a rupee for the poor, only 15 paisa reached them. Decades later, not much has changed. With leakages, delays, and uneven implementation of welfare schemes like NREGA, blunting benefits to the poor, the rural development ministry is proposing to put in place a system to assess the effectiveness of the schemes even...

-The Times of India India's official unemployment rate last year was 3.8%, data released recently by the Labour Bureau shows, but, as always, averages hide many stories. A closer look at the numbers shows that unemployment rises with education level to 10% among graduates, and higher still for backward castes. The Chandigarh-based Labour Bureau under the union ministry of labour and employment released the 'Employment and Unemployment Survey 2012' last week. The...

-The Times of India Groundwater, a precious natural resource, is for all practical purposes a private property in India. Anyone can bore and extract water from the land he owns with few rules to restrict over-exploitation. But all this could soon change. Plans are afoot to alter laws and regulations to make groundwater a common property resource to ensure better regulation by government as a public trustee with the involvement of communities...

-The Times of India The Planning Commission has asked states to hike electricity charges to not only save the ailing power sector but also use the subsidy to fund essential services like drinking water, education and health, which are essential for promoting inclusive growth. "The way the current situation (can) be handled is through some combination of tariff increase and serious efforts to reduce AT&C losses," Plan panel deputy chairman Montek Singh...

-The Hindustan Times Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called a meeting on Wednesday to consider uniform legal entitlement of subsidised foodgrains to 67% of the country's population under the National Food Security Bill. The meeting will discuss whether to accept the alternative plan, suggested by over 30 leading experts and economists, for easy and early implementation of Food Bill, a pet project of UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi. The experts, including plan panel member...