-The Hindu Sluggish health spending can be reversed with a substantial increase in the allocation for health in the Union Budget India’s neighbours, in the past two decades, have made great strides on the development front. Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Bhutan now have better health indicators than India, which has puzzled many. How could these countries make the great escape from the diseases of poverty earlier than their much bigger neighbour? India’s...

-Frontline.in Interview with Aruna Roy. ARUNA ROY is a well-known social and political activist. A former Indian Administrative Service officer, she resigned from the IAS in 1975 and has since worked with the most oppressed in society. Aruna Roy’s observation on government service is indicative of her future concerns: “Everyone calls it an elite service; I always felt the discourse should be a bit better than what it was. I was shocked...

-The Indian Express The latest data compiled by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) on recruitment over the last three years through the main agencies show a declining trend in selection and recruitment, from 1,13,524 cumulatively in FY2015 to 1,00,933 in FY2017. New Delhi: In terms of employment prospects, beneficiaries of the 10 per cent reservation for economically weaker sections in the general category, which was passed in Parliament last week,...

-The Hindu The authority of Adam Smith is frequently invoked by supporters of the free market, who argue for extending the market forces to all conceivable goods and services and eliminating any kind of government intervention in markets. However, Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations make it clear that he was not a laissez faire or free market...

-The Hindu Says its work comparable to UPSC’s A Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) has recommended that the Centre accord statutory status to the Staff Selection Commission (SSC), one of the largest recruitment agencies in the country. The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and all State Public Service Commissions either have constitutional or legal status. The SSC is the only such organisation that performs similar functions on a much larger scale, but does not...