-The Hindu   India is among the world champions of social underspending. Without enlightened social policies, growth mania is unlikely to deliver more under the new government than it did under the previous one Few people today remember the letter written on August 7, 2013 by Mr. Narendra Modi, then Chief Minister of Gujarat, to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. In this letter, available on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) website, Mr. Modi criticised...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has punched holes in the Sheila Dikshit-LED Congress government's claim of having provided basic services in 895 unauthorized colonies in the capital, touted as a major achievement of Dikshit's tenure, for which it spent more than Rs 3,000 crore between 2007 and 2013. Providing these basic services - sewer lines, water connections, roads and drainage - was mandatory before legalizing...

-Down to Earth Union ministry issues orders to all states to meet target of constructing 5.2 million toilets by end of August The Ministry of Drinking water and Sanitation on Friday finalised its 100-day plan, under which it has decided to construct one toilet every second by the end of August this year. Sarswati Prasad, joint secretary for sanitation, issued an order to each state, giving them their respective targets for the next...

Two political leaders from rival camps, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, have brought the spotlight on rural sanitation and have rooted for defecation-free India by investing in toilet construction on war footing. But a recent study by a group of eminent development economists LED by Prof. Dean Spears-a visiting economist at the Delhi School of Economics - has concluded that when it comes to...

-The Telegraph The Congress today slammed the Centre for linking food inflation to increased incomes and changing diets and asked if it intended to scrap its predecessor's welfare schemes that had raised poor families' purchasing power. Ironically, Congress ministers used to cite similar reasons for the rising prices. But spokesperson Randeep Surjewala accused the government of "insulting" the people and said it was a matter of satisfaction and pride that incomes were...