-The Hindustan Times   Patiala: A new study on farmers' suicide has revealed that young and unmarried farmers are more prone to suicides. Increasing frustration among young farmers because of agrarian crisis is compelling farmers to commit suicides. Titled "Agrarian distress in Punjab: a study of suicides by farmers and agricultural labourers", the study concludes that half of the farmers who committed suicides are below the age of 35 years and out of...

-Live Mint   Given the mandate that the BJP has received, it does have the political capital to support a new education agenda   The tactical and strategic brilliance of the campaign that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ran is visible in the election results. This also suggests that the BJP government is likely to start off on the task of governance with very clear ideas and in all likelihood with some specific plans....

-The Hindu   It is creditable that Narendra Modi seeks inspiration for his growth model from China and Japan rather than the U.S., which is a high-cost, specialist-driven model The old adage ‘health is wealth' was given legitimacy by no less a personage than Professor Jeffrey Sachs, who in 2000, chaired the World Health Organization's Commission on Macroeconomics and Health (CMH). The CMH report brought forth indisputable evidence of the link between health,...

-Down to Earth   As India elects new government, the 12th Five Year Plan may no longer be pro-poor MUCH hope is pinned on the 12th Five Year Plan that was declared as the first health Plan by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, while drafting the Plan, also termed it "pro-poor" and promised the maximum budget for social welfare schemes. But as the Plan comes into force this...

-The Business Standard   A seven-point agenda to fix India's public services, and overcome poorly designed systems India's Achilles Heel remains its inability to deliver public services. India's aspiration to be a global economic power will be unrealised if this remains unsolved. Why is this problem so particularly acute? Is it political interference and corruption, poorly designed programmes and weak administration? Or a much deeper cultural problem of aversion to collective action, often...