-BBC A legislator, who was kidnapped by Maoist rebels in the eastern Indian state of Orissa more than a month ago, is likely to be released on Thursday. The rebels said the decision to free Jhina Hikaka was taken at a meeting of the "praja court" (people's court). Mr Hikaka was abducted in the early hours of 24 March while returning home after attending a meeting. The government had earlier offered to free some...

Central bank sold its majority stake in Oct 2010; change will ensure entire equity  is held by the govt The government will amend a law governing the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) to allow the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to sell its 1% stake in the development lender. The central bank sold its majority stake in the lender to the government in October 2010. The government owns 99%...

Difficult times call for difficult measures. Pushed into a corner by an unsustainable fiscal deficit and various sectors and programs (including the proposed food security legislation) screaming for a greater share of the budget pie, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in India has been forced to do what it might not have otherwise—reduce its marquee job guarantee scheme’s allocation in a big way for the first time.  In one...

Audits will look into the money released to the states in the last seven years, says Ghulam Nabi Azad The health ministry will conduct annual audits of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) to detect irregularities in the utilization of funds. Health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has written to the state governments seeking their cooperation on this. “We have decided to go for an audit of NRHM fund utilization across the states,”...

The government is thinking of letting the states cherry pick the central schemes for rural welfare, a step back from centralized decision-making that it hopes could help quell the accusations that Centre was weakening the federal structure. The idea behind the 'flexifund route' is to allow states the freedom to decide rural development schemes they want to implement and how much of allocation should each get. It would mark a departure...