The Planning Commission has decided to disown the Integrated Action Plan (IAP) for Selected Tribal and Backward Districts that it authored and was approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) — in a vastly amended form — in November last. Currently being implemented in 60 Left wing extremist (LWE)-affected districts, the plan was watered down by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) before it received the CCEA nod. Having...

In a first of its kind public private partnership project (PPP),US-headquartered tractor and farm equipment manufacturing firm Deere & Co. and Gujarat government on Friday announced a scheme specially aimed to increase farm productivity of the marginalized tribal farmers of the state. “Under the five year long project the state government will buy from us 529 tractors each with a set of 13 farm equipments. These equipments will be provided to...

Despite its slackening industry, the common perception of West Bengal as a backward state has little substance when one looks at the facts. Most of us are conditioned to view economic development in terms of industrialisation. While industrialisation is essential for economic transformation, it is not as if economic growth is not possible without it. The sectoral structure of India's gross domestic product (GDP) and its slow transformation makes a good...

Over 500 people under the banner of All Adivasi Students' Association of Assam (Aasaa) staged a four-hour dharna in the Lastgate area of Dispur on Thursday seeking an immediate halt to illegal eviction in the Lungsung forest area of Kokrajhar district. Shouting slogans like "stop illegal eviction in Lungsung" and "give us justice", the protesters alleged that the Congress-led government in the state has deprived them of the basic needs....

A Delhi court has summoned Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) of India Vinod Rai to appear before it on February 5 as a witness on a complaint by Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy, seeking the prosecution of the former Telecom Minister, A. Raja, in the 2G spectrum allocation scam. Special CBI Judge Pradeep Chaddah also asked another CAG official, R.P. Singh, to appear at the Tis Hazari court on that day to...