-The Indian Express Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi Thursday requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to release Rs 1,000 crore as immediate relief to flood-hit Assam, where at least 37 people have died so far. Earlier in the day, Gogoi had complained that the Centre's response to the Assam floods was not as prompt as it was in the case of Jammu & Kashmir. While asking for the Rs 1,000 as immediate aid,...

-PTI Srinagar: When the floods wreaked havoc in Kashmir and plunged most parts of the Valley into darkness, few doctors at a lone maternity care hospital in Srinagar, lent a ray of light to people's lives by performing birth surgeries under candlelight. Doctors at the Lal Ded Hospital, whose ground floor was submerged by flood waters from Jhelum, performed six deliveries under the candlelight as the electricity supply to the hospital was...

-The Hindu Business Line Fate of 108 drugs brought under price control in July still unclear In a booster for pharmaceutical companies, the Government has ensured that the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) no longer enjoys sweeping powers to control drug prices. The NPPA on Tuesday withdrew the guidelines it issued on May 29 that allowed the Authority to control drug prices in public interest. Based on this, it had subsequently capped prices...

-The Financial Express A mechanism is needed to compensate farmers for not exercising their right to sell productive land but continue to grow foodgrains. India finds itself in a piquant SITuation. While its population, and with it the number of poor, is growing, its cultivable land is not only shrinking, more worryingly, the economic returns of the agricultural use are diminishing vis-a-vis non-agricultural use. The SITuation may not be alarming right now,...

-The Times of India Over 113 million persons were "seeking or available for work", that is, they were unemployed, according to Census 2011 data released today. This huge number made up around 15% of the working age population of about 748 million persons in the 15 to 60 years age group. These unemployed persons were distributed over nearly 70 million families or households. That's about 28% of all households in the...