-The Hindu The price surge in LPG cylinders has pushed consumers to lower the number of LPG refills with 5% of the PMUY beneficiaries refilling just once per year in FY22 The price of a 14.2 kg cylinder has skyrocketed to ₹1,053 in July 2022. Though a subsidy of ₹200 per cylinder was recently announced for the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana beneficiaries, the subsidised rate of ₹853 is still double the amount...

-Down to Earth Number of ‘heavy rain’ days have gone up in recent years, finds IMD analysis Climate change might be behind the change in rainfall pattern in recent years, leading to regular floods. The rainfall pattern in the state has changed over the last decade, with a greater number of ‘heavy rain’ days.  Days receiving more than 65 millimetres of rainfall are called ‘heavy rainfall’ days. Western, eastern and southern districts of the...

-The Telegraph There is no mention of compliance with ‘good manufacturing practices’ or the need to make inspection reports public, leaving the process of regulation vague and dependent on whims of drug inspectors This month, the Union ministry of health published the draft new drugs, medical devices and cosmetics bill to replace the antiquated Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940. Yet, most of the draft bill appears to be a copy of the...

-The Hindu Dehumanisation is the likely outcome when humane aspects of governance get outsourced to technologies The right to live with dignity is a constitutional imperative. However, it rarely manifests in discussions surrounding digital initiatives in governance. Centralised Data dashboards — valuable as they are — have become the go-to mode for assessing policies, relegating principles such as human dignity and hardships in accessing rights to its blind spots. Often when technological...

-The Telegraph The Reserve Bank of India’s usual strategy of raising interest rates to hold inflation at bay kicked in a bit late and has not been working well so far In India, price inflation has been creeping up in the recent past. The latest Data for June 2022 show consumer price index inflation to be 7.01% and wholesale price index inflation to be 15.18%. Food prices, which are an important component...