-Live Mint The deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, in an interview, spoke about the challenges of pushing public health reforms India is likely to finalize a draft Plan document next week to introduce universal health coverage in India. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, spoke in an interview about the challenges of pushing public health reforms with limited resources at hand.  Edited excerpts: * Will the government be able to...

-The Business Standard Make politicians' asset disclosures clearer, and follow up In an important move towards transparency, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last year reminded his council of ministers to declare their assets, movable and immovable, and said that the declarations would be put up online. Declarations for 2012 are now online and these should be welcome. But they also reveal that many lacunae remain in terms of full and clear disclosure. The...

Industrialisation of agriculture creates hunger and malnutrition, destroying the food web to which we all belong. Hunger and malnutrition is manmade. It is in the design of the industrial chemical model of agriculture. And just as hunger has been created by design, producing healthy and nutritious food for all can be designed through food democracy. That is what we do in Navdanya. That is what the diverse movements for food sovereignty...

-The Wall Street Journal/ Live Mint More than 60 million pushed below poverty line in India by healthcare costs in 2011 More than 60 million people were pushed below the poverty line in India by healthcare costs in 2011, said the Lancet medical journal, making a case for universal health coverage (UHC) in its latest issue. This comes amid international debate on the role of insurance, affordable medicines and access to healthcare. The...

-PTI Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's assets have not increased since last year but theiR Value has gone up, his office said on Monday. "The assets are the same but their valuation has gone up as the assessment has been done, for the first time, by a government-approved valuator," a PMO spokesman said. The clarification came after the Prime Minister declared the value of his assets as Rs 10,73,88,730.81, which is double the...