-Scroll.in The Five Year plan is gone, several long- and short-term plans are in, but the government is still mapping growth in a supposedly market economy. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the dismantling of the more than six-decades-old Planning Commission in his Independence Day speech on August 15, 2014, it seemed that India was at last formally breaking with the notion of planning, a socialist recipe for the anarchic market...
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Armed With a Toothless Law, the Plight of the Adivasi Worsens -Abhijit Mohanty
-TheWire.in Since coming into effect 21 years ago, PESA has been grossly misused and underutilised, disenfranchising Adivasi communities all over the country. In India, tribal communities have had a long history of struggle, including during the colonial rule. In fact, the tribal war for independence has largely been ignored in the popular history of independent India. Today, most of us are not aware that the war of independence started as early as...
More »Budget unmindful of income inequality -MA Oommen
-The Hindu Business Line It should have considered universal basic income. But sadly, budgets are not seen as a means to meet socio-economic goals The Union Budget attracts considerable media hype and debate. Democracy, if understood as a contract between the state and its citizens, may have to use the budgetary process to ensure not only prosperity for all, but justice or fairness to the most disadvantaged among them as well. A rational...
More »Generics vs big pharma, reloaded -Shamnad Basheer
-The Hindu The proposal to extend the time limit for State-level drug regulatory approvals from four to 10 years could hit the generics market In a scathing letter to the Government of India, the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) took issue with what it considered to be a backdoor extension for data exclusivity norms in the country. It pointed to the recent government proposal to change the four-year time limit for State-level drug...
More »The case against simultaneous polls -Jagdeep S Chhokar & Sanjay Kumar
-The Hindu If concurrent Lok Sabha and Assembly elections were to be a reality, it would go against the political diversity essential for addressing the social diversity of India. Though spoken about for quite a few years, simultaneous elections for the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies seem to be fast on their way to becoming a matter of national concern. This proposal is not only being discussed in the television studio, but...
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