-Financial Express A study by ICRIER researchers Ashok Gulati and Pritha Banerjee shows how problematic the fertiliser policy is—for farmers, industry, the environment and the Government. India’s experience with fertilisers, in the later part of the Green Revolution, prompted it to adopt a policy of subsidising fertilisers. In 1977, the country had a total NPK (nitrogenous, phosphatic and potassic) fertiliser consumption of 4.3 million metric tonnes (mmt) and per hectare usage...

-Hindustan Times A reply under the Right to Information Act, recently, disclosed that “Lokpal is provisionally operating from the Ashoka Hotel. In the absence of a permanent office in the national capital, the country’s apex anti-corruption body, Lokpal, set up to look into complaints against public servants, pays a monthly rent of Rs 50 lakh to Government-owned Hotel Ashoka for the office space it occupies in the five-star luxury hotel. A reply...

-The Indian Express Sources told The Indian Express that the state Government decided to table the report after a hurried Cabinet meeting late Saturday. During the meeting, sources said, at least two ministers claimed the Cabinet had been “misled” earlier about the contents of the report. The report of the Justice V K Agarwal enquiry commission, which found no evidence to support claims by security forces that 17 people killed in...

-The Hindu Such an ambiguity has serious implications for the design and beneficiaries of schemes meant to help them Who is a farmer? What is the Government’s definition of a farmer and how many farmers are there in India by that definition? Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar failed to answer that question when it was asked in Parliament last week. The Government’s ambiguity has serious implications for the design and beneficiaries of the...

-Livemint.com Pronab Sen, director IGC India, speaks about the state of the economy, the challenge before the 15th Finance Commission and the controversy surrounding India’s statistical system NEW DELHI: Pronab Sen, country director of the International Growth Centre (IGC), had a long and distinguished career in the Government as the principal adviser in the Planning Commission, the first chief statistician of India as well as the chairman of the National Statistical Commission....