-The Hindu Besides the missing informal SECtor, over-estimation of output growth also offers clues Are the latest employment estimates by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) factually correct? No. They are off the mark, and confined to the economy’s organised or formal SECtor, accounting at best for 15% of the workforce. Is there a paradox in high output growth rates and the marginal effect on employment? Probably not, if one acknowledges that GDP...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: India's largest body of doctors claimed on Tuesday that the Centre's proposed National Health Protection Scheme that seeks to reimburse hospitals for cashless services to patients may "eliminate small and medium hospitals" through unrealistic reimbursement rates. The reimbursement rates proposed under the NHPS are "very low" and will make it "impractical" to provide quality services, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) said, releasing figures from its own costing exercise...

-National Herald Last year, Centre had informed the Supreme Court that despite a multi-pronged approach to improve income and social SECurity of farmers, over 12,000 suicides were reported in the agricultural SECtor every year since 2013 Over the last 48 hours, at least 24 debt ridden farmers have committed suicide. The Marathwada region in Maharashtra has alone witnessed 452 instances of suicide in the first half of 2018 Despite announcements of loan waivers...

-Livemint.com The concerns about the downsides of these schemes are overblown, and they could go some way in alleviating rural woes Since the Union Budget 2018-19, there has been a great deal of discussion in the public domain regarding the health of the rural SECtor. We believe that the rural SECtor needs some policy intervention, be it price support or income support. As a case in point, the agri gross domestic product...

-Firstpost.com Chandigarh: Two years ago, Charan Singh's tubewell ran dry just before the paddy-sowing season could start. The rice farmer, who cultivates four acres of land in the Mansa district of Punjab, had been pumping water from 45 feet below the surface. Now he had to dig another, deeper well. Like Charan Singh, 36, thousands of farmers across Punjab are astonished at the speed at which groundwater, their principal source of water...