-Live Mint Inefficient government relief is reason to allow Access to alternatives The increased probability of an El Nino weather pattern has already begun to rustle up fears about how a bad monsoon could hurt a sluggish Indian economy. The concerns are valid even though the economy is less dependent on agriculture than before and reservoir levels this summer are quite comfortable. The lessons of previous El Nino episodes in 2002...

-Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research Using the recent rounds of NSS data, this paper evaluates the performance and outreach of India's public distribution system (PDS) in the rural areas. The results suggest a significant improvement in the performance of PDS in terms of its outreach and offtake. States like Bihar and Jharkhand which were lagging behind earlier have shown a marked improvement. We find greater coverage and utilisation of the...

-Down to Earth Grand old party of India renews some old promises and makes some new ones, but will Congress live up to its promises if it wins a third term? The Indian National Congress (INC) presented its manifesto for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections on Wedneday. The manifesto committee claimed the 48-page document was prepared after wide consultations by engaging millions of people, grassroots congress workers and every section of the...

-BLOOMBERG Keeping the economic data available on website may violate the Election Commission's code of conduct, says state economic statistics director New Delhi: Gujarat led by Narendra Modi, whose party leads in polls to win general elections starting next month, has blocked Access to official economic data on its website during the campaign. The directorate of economic statistics in Gujarat, the state Modi has run since 2001, has removed Access to publications...

-The Times of India Funding for one of the foremost drug discovery projects in India came to an end on Monday as the financial year closed because the ministry of science and technology did not clear the cabinet note meant to extend funding for the project on time. The Open Source Drug Discovery (OSDD) project of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), meant to discover drugs for neglected diseases, had...