-Livemint.com The success of cash transfers will depend on how well the government addresses design bugs The recent economics conclave hosted by the finance ministry in the capital has rekindled the debate on cash transfers in India. Among the invitees to the conclave was one of the most vocal critics of India’s transition to direct cash transfers, Jean Dreze, a development economist and an advisor to the erstwhile United Progressive Alliance (UPA)...

-Economic and Political Weekly A comment on the article "Falling Sick, Paying the Price: NSS 71st Round on Morbidity and Costs of Healthcare" (EPW, 15 August 2015) which suggests that the National Sample Survey Office's 71st round on social consumption of health can be read differently. Nishant Jain (jainnishu@gmail.com) is Deputy Program Director at German development Cooperation, India; Alok Kumar is Adviser (Health) at NITI Aayog; Sunil Nandraj is Adviser (Clinical Establishments...

-Hindustan Times New Delhi: Eight-year-old Pihu Tiwari runs a marathon every morning with nearly 12 kilos loaded on her back. At least that’s what her walk from the school gate to her second-floor classroom feels like. She doesn’t just get tired but often pants her way up the staircase. “She is thin and weighs 29kg. And every day, she has to carry a bag to school which is almost half her weight. My...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Madras high court on Friday stayed the government order cancelling Greenpeace India's registration, observing that the Tamil Nadu Registrar of Societies (RoS) had not followed principles of natural justice. The Tamil Nadu RoS had cancelled the registration of Greenpeace India -- the environmental NGO that has been campaigning against air pollution and the unsustainable use of natural resources in India -- earlier this month. After getting...

As Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh fight the fury of flood caused by annual northeast monsoon, a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on the natural disaster in Uttarakhand, which took place in June 2013, has been made available in the public domain recently. The CAG report discloses how various development activities in the state flouted guidelines issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Expert Committee on glaciers...