-Press Information Bureau The official Wholesale Price Index for ‘All Commodities' (Base: 2004-05 = 100) for the month of December, 2013 declined by 1.3 percent to 179.2 (provisional) from 181.5 (provisional) for the previous month. INFLATION The annual rate of inflation, based on monthly WPI, stood at 6.16% (provisional) for the month of December, 2013 (over December, 2012) as compared to 7.52% (provisional) for the previous month and 7.31% during the corresponding month...

-The Hindustan Times Moga (Punjab): A Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) study has found that farmers in the state are wasting more than Rs. 175 crore on application of unnecessary fertiliser on crops a year. A large quantity of nitrogen also seeped underground resulting into the contamination of ground water. The study has found that incorrect and inappropriate application of fertilisers by farmers to gain bumper yield leads to the deterioration of soil,...

A new report on India's housing sector confirms with facts and figures what has been suspected all along: that despite growing demand for affordable housing, supply side responses have been weak and sluggish. This means even though the housing sector can directly impact employment and income generation, and has multiple forward and backward linkages with various industries, it needs innovative ideas, pro-poor thinking and policy stimulus. (See link below for...

-The Hindu Business Line Clientelism - tying benefits to political choices - cannot work because voting preferences cannot be ascertained. Do parties and their local agents link access to government services and benefits from government welfare schemes to how voters vote, or are expected to vote? This political strategy, which social scientists refer to as clientelism, depends on a massive investment in local leaders who collect information on voters' party preferences, vote choices...

-The Hindu State governments are going "against the letter and spirit" of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act) on several issues in the State rules they have formulated, reveals a recent review report of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR). They have in effect diluted the Act that is supposed to provide all children between ages 6 and 14 the fundamental right...