-The Hindu Business Line Generic prescription patterns, supply-chain management must for low-cost drug availability An earnest-sounding voice answers the Jan Aushadhi hotline number and assures the person calling that more stores are being planned by the Government in districts across the country. That response was to the caller’s query if there was a Jan Aushadhi (JA) store in Mumbai. As it happens, there is one in Maharashtra, but in Pune! It’s been over...

-The Hindu Business Line The recent devastation of crops shows that the Indian economy continues to be a ‘gamble’ on the rain. But can India Meteorological Department’s new model make it predictable? Moisture wrecks a farmer's life. Since February this year, lakhs of farmers across 14 states were left with damaged crops. Unseasonal rains destroyed crops on 11 million hectares spread over Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Punjab....

-Economic and Political Weekly Unlimited growth for prosperity in a fi nite planet is not possible. Ecological economists like Tim Jackson, Peter Victor, and others talk about prosperity without growth and highlight the need for greening the economy on a community scale. Using the "criteria of green economy enterprise" set by Jackson and Victor as a tool, this article looks at khadi production, India's community-level cloth production system. Sumanas Koulagi (k.sumanas@yahoo.in) is...

-Economic and Political Weekly Much has been claimed on behalf of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act that has been enacted by Parliament, but the legislation has introduced a watered-down version of auctions, has many exceptions to legalise the old first-cum-firstserve approach, and ignores previous Supreme Court rulings on measures to ensure sustainable development. E A S Sarma (eassarma@gmail.com) is a former Union Power Secretary. With a brute majority in...

-The Financial Express A forensic report prepared for the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) shows over a third of India's top 500 companies, including those in the top 100, are "managing" their accounts. It finds that companies where promoters hold more than 50% of total shareholding are more likely to take such steps to impress markets with their performance. Both domestic companies and subsidiaries of multinationals listed in India show similar trends...