-The Economic Times blog Word has it that World Bank economists use “obviously fabricated” data from time to time. These are not Sitaram Yechury or Medha Patkar’s words, but those of Paul Romer, former chief economist of the World Bank, in a recent email exchange reported by Financial Times. Romer retracted them later, but this “may not end the controversy”, as The Economist mildly put it. This is not the first time...

-The Financial Express As onion prices surge on the removal of curbs on minimum export price (MEP), Lasalgaon Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) – the largest wholesale market for onions in Asia – is all set to be part of the World Bank-implemented Maharashtra Agricultural Competitiveness Project (MACP). The APMC will receive funds to the tune of Rs 1 crore as part of the project to bring the entire auction process...

-TheWire.in India’s jump in the ‘Doing Business’ rankings turns out to be mostly an “artefact of methodological changes”, according to a report by the Centre for Global Development. New Delhi: The Centre for Global Development (CDG), a US-based think-tank that studies global poverty and inequality, has dismissed India’s spectacular jump on the World Bank’s latest ease of doing business index as misleading, saying it is largely due to changes in the methodology...

-TheWire.in Why has India chosen the path of expanding medical insurance instead of a more comprehensive approach to health? The concern with rising inequities in access to medical care, rising out-of-pocket expenditures and unmet treatment needs have been addressed with yet another targeted medical insurance scheme for poor households. The idea of a targeted medical insurance is not new. Several southern states like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka had introduced such schemes many...

-Hindustan Times The Atal Bhujal Yojana will be launched in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh The government has finalised the contours of a Rs 6,000-crore scheme to tackle the country’s depleting groundwater level, almost a year-and-a-half after finance minister Arun Jaitley announced the plan in the Union Budget. Called the Atal Bhujal Yojana (ABY) and piloted by the Union water resources ministry, the scheme now needs the cabinet’s...