-The Indian Express As several steps taken by the Centre for the sector hangs fire, clarity and implementation of ‘Housing for All’ scheme would be the key for its success. The Union Cabinet approved its flagship ‘Housing for All’ scheme this week, with a 2022 target and a renewed emphasis on the low-income group categories by way of relaxed income limits and higher interest subvention. While the government seems to have struck...

-Institute of Economic Growth The paper explores the trends, composition, and incidence of out-of-pocket health expenditure (OOPHE) in India, which has been the predominant means of financing its health care needs. Unit-level data from the National Sample Survey on Household Consumer Expenditure for the years 1993–94, 2004–05, and 2011–12 are used. Results show that the burden of OOPHE has increased steadily over time, but more for the lower economic quintiles. Drugs...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Tweaks the home ministry has proposed to rules governing foreign funding for NGOs will leave these organisations at the mercy of the government's unilateral interpretations of what violates an undefined idea of "national interest", social activists have said. More than the suggested new rules themselves, put up on the ministry website for feedback yesterday, it's the mandatory declaration proposed for NGOs at the end that critics have termed...

-The Hindu The child’s ‘right to be heard’ has been validated by a UN Convention. It’s time to let children decide when and what kind of labour is right. The debate over children working has been raging for centuries, with policies constantly changing to reflect the attitudes of a given time. During the World Wars, children were allowed to work as they were needed in factories and other services. When the soldiers...

-The Hindu Business Line Don’t let Modi’s gloss undermine the efforts and achievements of the UPA government, says the former Prime Minister This is the text of a speech delivered at the Congress chief ministers’ conclave in New Delhi on June 9 There is somewhat of a euphoria that our GDP growth since 2014-15 has started accelerating once again. But doubts have been expressed both within and outside government about the validity of...