-TheWire.in The government’s premier policy-formulating agency recently recommended measures to deregulate the pharmaceutical sector and make essential medicines more expensive. New Delhi: Even as the prime minister repeatedly expresses his commitment to providing affordable medicines in the country, it appears that the Niti Aayog and the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) may be working in an opposing direction. Documents between October 2016 and April 2017 show the intention of various government arms to...

-Outlook Policy think-tank Niti Aayog has suggested outsourcing of public services to private hands in order to reduce dependence on the government administrative machinery. It has also recommended induction of specialists into the governance system through lateral entry, a move which, it says, will bring "competition to the established career bureaucracy". In its draft report on a three-year action agenda made public recently, the Niti Aayog has set a target of full- digitisation...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Amid a growing debate over issue of taxing farm income, eminent agriculture scientist M S Swaminathan on Saturday expressed his views against such tax and said other methods could be explored to tax rich farmers with multiple sources of the income. "I do not agree with tax on agriculture income since agriculture is the major source of livelihood for over 50% of our population. It is...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Congress today alleged that the Narendra Modi government was testing the waters on bringing agricultural income within the tax ambit and declared its intention to build a movement of farmers if the idea was implemented. "This government is harassing industrialists, traders, students, political rivals... only one section of the society was left, that is farmers," Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said. "The statements coming from important people in...

-PTI New Delhi: Joining the debate on taxing agriculture income, Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian today said states, which have the option to levy the tax, should make a distinction between rich and poor farmers. “The legal situation is...nothing prevents state governments from taxing agriculture income. The constitutional restriction is on central government taxing agriculture income. “There too, one could make a case that this is a choice open to 29 state governments...