The states fear they would end up funding both their own scheme as well as the newly-announced National Health Protection Scheme.
'This is the era of images; no speech that Mukherjee could have given could counter the sight of a senior Congressman, elevated by the party to Rashtrapati Bhavan, standing rigidly next to the RSS gerontocracy as those worthies delivered the organisation's faux-fascist salute,' says Mihir Sharma.
According to a senior government official, the plan is to do "collective bargaining" for certain medical devices and implants by assuring a bulk requirement to the manufacturers. "The requirement for these devices runs into millions. We assure them that the requirement is going to be in bulk. In return, they should offer us better rates," he said.
The average land given to the rural landless is small and falling, from 0.95 acres in 2002 to 0.88 acres in 2015 - a 7.4 per cent drop over 13 years-and a slowdown is evident in the process of taking land away from rich landlords, the RTI data reveal.
Under the scheme, the government proposes to provide electricity to all households by December 2018, ahead of the earlier target of March, 2019.
The 33-year-old, who steered his party to an impressive show in the Bihar assembly polls last year thereby emerging out of the shadow of his father Lalu Prasad, underscored that the opposition needed to bring in "dhaar" (edge) and "nayaapan" (novelty) in its electoral issues.
States are now gearing up to implement the scheme, integrating it with their own public health insurance plans and tying up the loose ends.
With certain quarters demanding privatisation of public sector banks in the aftermath of the alleged fraud at Punjab National Bank (PNB), Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister chairman Bibek Debroy tells Sanjeeb Mukherjee, Ishan Bakshi and Indivjal Dhasmana that reducing government equity even to zero would not mean giving up of government control over these banks.
Experts believe that states will be in a predicament because of their tight fiscal position and reluctance to replace their own health schemes with this newly announced National Health Protection Scheme.
India's cities must switch over to piped gas leaving LPG cylinders.
Sops for middle class, poor and farmers on cards.
As a result of the mass state-led scheme, the processes in the health insurance market could get simplified over time and become uniform
The real battle for NEET abolition can take much more time and energy, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's silence over caste based census and Bihar's special status is likely to put the BJP in a tight spot ahead of upcoming state assembly polls.
India's rising GDP may have propelled the middle class to become richer, buy new cars, travel around the world and build assets, but it further pushed the economically disadvantaged and poor into poverty and drudgery, says Devanik Saha.
Less than half of rural households are engaged in agriculture.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's maiden speech from Red Fort last Independence Day outlined some grand programmes. Shehzad Poonawalla does a quick check on the progress made.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Ayushman Bharat health care scheme is just a slogan for the moment, it is the state's Mukhyamantri Amrutum health assurance scheme which is a comforting reality for many.
The passage of this major legislation comes ahead of the general election due early next year.
'The Jharkhand government is increasingly intolerant of voices of dissent.' 'Recently 20 persons, including activists, writers and academics, were booked for sedition.' 'Many of them have been critical of the government's apathy towards Adivasis,' notes Siraj Dutta.
'They are innovating and a new Dalit leadership could be seen at the horizon'
Setting the stage for confrontation in Parliament, an all-party meeting called in New Delhi on the eve of the monsoon session on Monday ended in a deadlock over controversies related to the Lalit Modi and Vyapam scam even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered to discuss all issues. The government ruled out any resignations.
From coming up with the correct list of beneficiaries to finding enough people to work as Ayushman Mitras to generating awareness about the scheme - many things need to fall in place before it can be successfully launched in a few days.
'The BJP will never do anything substantial to empower Dalits.'
The proposed changes to the child labour law to allow children and adolescents to work for their families would be most retrograde and regressive, say Shinzani Jain and Paranjoy Guha Thakurta.
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