-The Hindu The distinct characteristics of India’s agriculture require that a reformed state must ensure farmer, consumer welfare For at least four decades now, economic policy making globally has dogmatically adhered to the notion that a progressively reduced role of the state would automatically deliver greater economic growth and welfare to the people. Since reform, by definition, is taken to mean only one thing, sector after sector is compulsively sought to be...

-The Indian Express Delhi government’s Saheli Samanvay Kendra scheme was announced in Deputy CM Manish Sisodia’s 2021-22 Budget speech, where it was stated that such kendras will be set up in 500 anganwadi hubs across all districts to “strengthen the role of women in the economy”. The Delhi government’s Saheli Samanvay Kendra (SSK) scheme to ensure women’s participation in the workforce is launching with 21 such model centres in anganwadi hubs this...

-The Hindu Other important promises that could touch, and likely improve, the lives of millions rarely make headlines Disparaging references to “freebies” are a popular trope of media coverage of elections in Tamil Nadu. This Assembly election is no different: free data, free tabs, free washing machines were in the news as political parties released their election manifestos. Electoral promises serve as a road map for elected governments and deserve greater scrutiny....

-TheIndiaForum.in Stagnant government funding and mis-allocation of available resources in recent years are together resulting in limited improvements in levels of child nutrition, anaemia and mortality. Last December the results of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) from 2015-16 hit the headlines. And the news was not good. In a world where children mattered, the logical outcome would have been for the government to course correct in the budget to be presented...

-TheWire.in Indian agriculture is in the grip of a crisis and needs to move away from the 'cereal trap' towards alternatives. Deregulation of marketing should come second, not first. At the Indian Express’s e-Adda on March 21, Punjab’s chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh asked a question that has still not received an answer: Why did the Central government feel it had to change a marketing system that has existed for a hundred...