The state of Jharkhand has been in the news recently but for the wrong reasons. The NREGS workers who worked for constructing dobhas (small farm ponds) across the state during April to June 2016 have been treated unfairly by the officials in the sense that they were not paid their due wages, alleges a group of local activists. Despite complaints being made by the aggrieved workers, no action has been...

-Business Today Priyanka Kishore, Lead Asia Economist at Oxford Economics tells Business Today why India's GDP may well not be 7 per cent. Excerpts from an interview. * What were the reasons that prompted you to relook at India's growth numbers? India announced a revamped GDP series in early 2015, based on the requirements of the 2008 System of National Accounts (SNA). The new method made substantial changes to both the estimation and...

-Frontline Medecins Sans Frontieres warns that the free or regional trade agreements that are being negotiated, which seek to strengthen current patent regimes, are a potential threat to the developing world’s Access to life-saving drugs, which it sources mostly from India. WHEN NELSON MANDELA’S GOVERNMENT passed the Medicines and Related Substances Control Act in 1997 to make medicines more Accessible to the poor, 39 big pharmaceutical companies filed law suits in...

-The Hindu Mihir Shah on the importance of an integrated policy for groundwater and surface water Mihir Shah, water policy expert, member of the erstwhile Planning Commission and in recent months head of several committees tasked with reforming India’s water laws, says existing institutions are inadequate to address our water needs. Which is why, he says in an e-mail interview, India needs an overarching water commission. Excerpts: * The proposed National Water Commission...

-The Indian Express India should learn from China and start with liberalisation of rural land, labour and capital markets before attempting bigger things. Independence Day has come and gone with its usual mix of celebrations, pride and ruminations on how things could be better. Interestingly, several media commentaries tagged the event with the 25th anniversary of economic reforms, launched in 1991 around the same time of the year. They largely dwelt on the theme...