-The Hindu Much of the National Health Policy document reads like a report of health issues and systemic challenges, and is sorely wanting on policy detail Health impoverishment - falling into poverty due to health care costs - affects 63 million individuals in India every year. This is a damning statistic, especially when read with the fact that 18 per cent of all households face catastrophic health expenditures (health expenditure greater than...

-Press Information Bureau/ Ministry of Finance The plan outlay of 2015-16 reflects the compositional shift in the allocations for various Programmes and Schemes in view of high devolution; 42% of Union Taxes, to States as per the recommendation of 14th Finance Commission. Making his Budget Speech while presenting the General Budget 2015-16, the Finance Minister, Shri Arun Jaitley said that consequent to this substantially higher devolution, many schemes on the State...

-Economic and Political Weekly   The stage is all set for the resumption of iron ore mining in Goa after it was suspended in the state in 2012, to curb its indiscriminate and illegal mining. The Goa government's decision to renew the mining leases comes at a time when the economics of iron ore mining have changed and environmental concerns have gained more prominence. Pamela D'Mello (dmello.pamela@gmail.com) is a Goa-based journalist. The state government...

-Hindustan Times The Narendra Modi government has decided to introduce the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, 2015, in Lok Sabha today. The controversial Bill seeks approval of Parliament for changes brought in the law through an ordinance or emergency executive order in December 2014. The Bill will lapse on March 20, if it is not passed during this budget session that began...

-Business Standard Intellectual property policy should focus on implementation A preliminary draft of a new intellectual property rights policy for India has been the occasion for much discussion. Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman even felt it necessary to assert on Twitter that the proposed revamp is not meant to appease the United States, given that this remains a major outstanding irritant in relations between the two countries. The government has argued that the...