-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The political class on Monday was a divided house on corporate houses directly picking the beneficiaries of their 'big money'. While the big parties led by Congress and BJP favoured the present system of corporate funding during the Election Commission's national consultation here on 'Political Finance and Law Commission's Recommendations', the Left, Trinamool Congress and JD(U) plumped for a system whereby entire corporate funding is funnelled...

-The Indian Express Indian farmers are under stress this year. Earlier, many of them lost their crops in the kharif season, which was almost a drought with monsoon rains falling 12 per cent below their long-period average. Now unseasonal rains have impacted them adversely in the rabi season. Agri-GDP growth this year, expected to be a meagre 1.1 per cent before the unseasonal rains, may fall flat to just zero, if...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The government's new policy think-tank is set to launch its social sector plans with a scheme for women and children, tracking an expectant mother's first visit to a doctor till the tiny form that has stirred to life inside her completes primary school. Officials said the Niti Aayog, which recently replaced the Planning Commission, had decided on the Aadhaar-based project when it met for the first time this...

-The Hindu The Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana was introduced to provide partial wage compensation during pregnancy, but various issues plague its implementation The latest official figures indicate that India is well short of meeting the Millennium Development Goals that pledged to reduce the country's maternal mortality ratio (MMR) by three quarters and the infant mortality rate (IMR) by two-thirds. The Sample Registration System (SRS), 2013, records MMR at 167 per 1,00,000...

-The Indian Express Mumbai: The Maharashtra government is likely to bring farmers' suicides under insurance cover to enable higher financial compensation to the victims' families, state Agriculture Minister Eknath Khadse has told The Indian Express. The development comes at a time when the government is grappling with drought across 24,000 villages and an increasing number of farmer suicides is being reported from the Marathwada region. Statistics show that almost 85 to 90...