-The Hindu   To provide water supply, drainage, solid waste management and street lighting  If a rural area boasts a high population — well above 5,000, sometimes as high as 20,000 — with most of its workforce in non-farm jobs, is it a village or a town? For almost 4,000 such areas, the definition is unclear: the census calls them towns, but since they have gram panchayats rather than municipal corporations, the government...

Finance ministry asks automobile sector to submit a report on the impact of such a move within a week’s time The government appears to have made up its mind to increase excise duty on diesel cars to neutralize the advantage of the state subsidy that has prompted motorists to increasingly favour vehicles powered by the fuel that’s Rs.30 a litre cheaper at the pump than petrol. Indications that the government is leaning...

-PTI Amid differences among allies, the government on Thursday deferred a decision on the changes in the crucial Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Bill, 2011. "It (the PFRDA Bill) was taken up and deferred", said a minister after the Cabinet meeting here. Among the UPA allies, Trinamool Congress has been quite vociferous in opposing the pension and insurance reforms. Railway minister Mukul Roy, who represents TMC in the UPA government, did not speak...

-The Indian Express Jairam Ramesh’s criticism of NREGA highlights that a rights-based approach to poverty reduction cannot work without improving implementation The clamour for the right to social pensions is another attempt to deal with the Indian state’s inability to provide adequate social protection to its poorest citizens through targeted programmes. India’s vulnerable continue to be excluded from social safety nets. The multi-layered problems with social welfare schemes can be summarised in...

WHO panel proposed treaty requires all governments to share cost   India supports a proposed legally binding global instrument that requires all governments to share the cost of research and development (R&D). The treaty, recommended by a World Health Organisation panel, will boost access to countries least able to pay for medical innovations but need it most. This would also delink profits from medical discoveries. The “Consultative Expert Working Group on Research and...