-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The health ministry was actively mulling compulsory licensing, apart from price capping, of “orphan drugs” (for rare diseases), when the department of pharmaceuticals abruptly issued an order exempting such medicines from price control, derailing plans to make these drugs affordable. The health ministry discussed price capping and invoking compulsory licence for these “exorbitantly” priced “orphan drugs” at a meeting on January 3, the day when DoP...

-The Indian Express The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) and the NPPA are also documented as having given similar assurances in subsequent meetings. New Delhi: After the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) imposed price caps on coronary stents in February last year, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) is documented as having “indicated” to representatives of foreign medical device companies in a meeting that the Indian government has no plans to...

-Business Standard State set to grab pole position in 3rd edition of rankings, which are likely to be out early April, Delhi expected to score low The third edition of the government's annual Ease of Doing Business ranking for states, modeled on the international one conducted by the World Bank, may see West Bengal jumping 15 places to top the list along with Chhatisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. Data collected till Wednesday on an...

-The Hindu It is crucial to align policy across sectors and upgrade the country’s social infrastructure In India’s highly segmented labour market, one can still discern at least three demographic groups that are in urgent need of jobs: a growing number of better educated youth; uneducated agricultural workers who wish to leave agricultural distress behind; and young women, who too are better educated than ever before. India is indeed the fastest growing large economy...

-The Hindu Parliamentary committee airs concerns over poor growth The Parliament’s Standing Committee on Commerce has questioned the country’s low manufacturing growth despite initiatives such as Make In India, Startup India and FDI reforms that are now more than two years old. The committee, led by BJP MP Bhupender Yadav, had expressed concerns about manufacturing growth averaging just 1.6% in the five years till 2015-16 and a 0.5% contraction in the sector in...