-The Indian Express Substantial number of interest subvention scheme loans are diverted to non-agricultural uses. Government must switch to an income-support subsidy regime The Union budget for 2016-17 has provisioned Rs 15,000 crore on account of interest subvention for short-term agricultural credit, up by Rs 2,000 crore over the revised estimate for FY16. The mere shifting of this line item from the department of financial services to the department of agriculture...

-The Hindu Business Line New delhi: The Centre will work out a strategy for crop production for the coming kharif cropping season keeping in mind the recent crop damage due to unseasonal rain and moisture stress and deficit monsoon last year. The strategy will be thrashed out at a national conference on kharif 2016 next week. The kharif cropping season is from July to October during the South-West monsoon. “The South-West monsoon of the...

-PTI New delhi: The Rural Development Ministry will carry out a pilot study on environmental benefits and green outcomes of rural flagship scheme MGNREGA in seven states with the help of United Nations Development Programme. The project will be conducted in 14 gram panchayats, two each from seven agro-ecological zones of the country -- Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, Guajrat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Watershed Support Services and Activities Network (WASSAN),...

-The Times of India NEW delhi: After a parliamentary panel's report calling for reform, it is the turn of the international scientific community and healthcare experts to red flag the functioning of the Medical Council of India (MCI). A latest report in 'Lancet', a medical journal, has expressed concerns about the council and the state of regulation of medical education in India. Referring to several observations in the parliamentary standing committee report...

-The Times of India NEW delhi: The women and child development ministry (WCD) has written to the Rajya Sabha seeking to withdraw its response on marital rape describing it as an "oversight." The fresh response that the ministry is likely to put before Parliament is that the issue is under law commission's consideration. WCD minister Maneka Gandhi's response to a Parliament question in Rajya Sabha terming marital rape as a concept unsuited...