A new report on India's housing sector confirms with facts and figures what has been suspected all along: that despite growing demand for affordable housing, supply side responses have been weak and sluggish. This means even though the housing sector can directly impact employment and income generation, and has multiple forward and backward linkages with various industries, it needs innovative ideas, pro-poor thinking and policy stimulus. (See link below for...

-Press Information Bureau Preliminary Transcript of the Q&A portion of the Prime Minister's Press Conference at the National Media Centre, New Delhi Q: After the Assembly elections, much churning is going on in the UPA. Do you think the Congress should now announce its PM candidate? PM: The Congress President has already answered that question. We will announce our candidate for the Prime Ministership at the appropriate time. Q: On corruption issues which have...

-The Times of India Ashok Khemka has become famous as a much-transferred IAS officer, but he is far from being the only one to have been shunted ever so often. An analysis of the executive record (ER) sheets of thousands of IAS officers currently in service reveals that frequent transfers are depressingly common. It shows that about two-thirds of the officers have had average tenures of 18 months or less. The analysis...

-The Telegraph Networks of private hospitals across India today said they would stop providing cashless services to beneficiaries of government-funded healthcare schemes from January 15 next year, citing delays in payments and "low" charges set by the government. Members of the Association of Healthcare Providers of India (AHPI) said beneficiaries of the Central Government Health Scheme would need to pay for any treatment they seek from that date onwards and seek reimbursement...

-The Hindu There is no disparagement of subsidies in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh because those who attack the social welfare policies of the Congress regard them as examples of good governance by a party of the Right Three propositions dominate explanations of the Congress party's rout, the Bharatiya Janata Party's impressive victory and the Aam Aadmi Party's stunning success in Delhi in the recent Assembly elections. One, that there is a strong...