-The Indian Express An urban employment guarantee programme is an idea whose time has come. Temperatures are rapidly warming up in what promises to be a blistering summer of India’s electioneering. Amidst the belligerent grandstanding on national security and the communal messaging barely below the surface, Rahul Gandhi’s announcement of a minimum income guarantee scheme came as a Relief, if only because it tried to steer the public discussions to the...

-The Indian Express Government agencies and courts can no longer give precedence to one kind of public interest (that of middle and upper classes) over another kind of public interest (that of the slum residents). On March 18, the Delhi High Court held that slum dwellers are not secondary citizens but citizens with equal rights. Authorities can evict slum dwellers only when their occupation of the land is illegal. Any unannounced...

-The Economic Times The IBC’s ‘fresh start’ process provides a systematic manner of waiving debts overseen by a judicial body. Historically, farm loan waivers have been used as a quick-fix solution to agrarian distress in India. Commonly used by political parties before elections, they have a long history at both central & state levels. However, the efficiency of waivers in actually resolving the debt burden of farmers is questionable. Waivers may work as...

-The Hindu Making hospitalisation affordable will spell Relief, but there is no alternative to strengthening primary health care In 2011, a high-level expert group on universal health coverage reckoned that nearly 70% of government health spending should go to primary health care. The National Health Policy (NHP) 2017 also advocated allocating resources of up to two-thirds or more to primary care as it enunciated the goal of achieving “the highest possible level...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government has capped trade margins of 42 cancer drugs at 30% expanding the span of price control to curtail undue profiteering by chemists and drug stockists on various medicines which were so far outside price regulation. The move is expected to bring major Relief to around 1.5 million cancer patients in India reeling under exponentially high treatment cost leading to heavy out-of-pocket expenditure. In a detailed...