Guess what hogs the news? In a country plagued by rural problems and social ills, it's politics and business that find the maximum coverage in newspapers and not health, education, agriculture or environment. A comprehensive study of 10 newspapers in five states from mid-September to mid- November 2010 by The Hoot, a media monitor, found that political news constituted the maximum - 15.7 percent of the total news items, followed by...
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Subsidising healthcare
The union finance ministry’s decision to partially subside capital investment in healthcare and education by extending the “viability gap funding” facility to these sectors is welcome as they are vital areas of social infrastructure, which are no less important than roads and bridges. But every sector has its own complexity and the nuancing that the health ministry has sought for such subsidy to healthcare infrastructure needs serious attention. The ministry’s...
More »‘Few in UPA concerned about the plight of dalits' by Suresh Nambath
“While the UPA has focused on bettering the lot of the Dalit community, it is dominated by upper caste Hindus, very few of whom are genuinely concerned about the plight of dalits,” the American Embassy said in a cable sent under the name of Ambassador David Mulford on June 22, 2005 ( 35177: confidential), and accessed by The Hindu through WikiLeaks. ‘Little upward mobility' “This ensures that dalits will continue to be...
More »India's overflowing grain bins may lead to crisis, warns key farm panel by Rishi Shah
A key government panel has warned that the country's overflowing grain bins will lead to a crisis if the government did not come up with a plan to dispose of the stored grain . The Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) painted the grim picture in a presentation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last week. It said the Centre, which is the biggest buyer of grain in the country, was sitting...
More »Growth as tool to alleviate poverty
The Prime Minister's focus on double-digit growth is not due to any ‘growth mania'. It is for the benefit of the poor. At a recent function for police officers, the Prime Minister observed: “If we don't control Naxalism, we have to say goodbye to our country's ambition to sustain a growth rate of 10 to 11 per cent per annum.” Some commentators (like Prof Prabhat Patnaik of JNU) interpret this (in a...
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