-The Indian Express UP, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu account for 36% of total agri-lending in FY17 till December New Delhi: AMID EARLY signs of farmers in Maharashtra starting to default on their farm loans in anticipation of a waiver on the lines of the one announced in Uttar Pradesh, what is adding to the worries of banks and other lending institutions is that the four states where such waivers are under discussion...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The government's price cap on coronary stents has not deterred the health-care industry from continuing to offer hospitals profit opportunities of tens of thousands of rupees on other kinds of stents, concerned doctors and health-care industry representatives said.     The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), the government's price regulator, had on February 15 imposed a cap of about Rs 30,000 on coronary stents. But hospitals can continue to...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government cleared the decks for a fully paper trail-based parliamentary poll on Wednesday, with the Union Cabinet approving release of funds to the Election Commission for procuring 16.15 lakh voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) units in time for the 2019 general election. The expenditure of Rs 3,173 crore on the VVPATs will be split over two financial years, 2017-18 and 2018-19. If the EC...

-The Telegraph Chandigarh: The chief ministers of neighbouring Punjab and Haryana have agreed to cooperate on action against sex determination centres, which are illegal, and female foeticide. Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh of the Congress today responded to a Twitter appeal from his Haryana counterpart, Manohar Lal Khattar of the BJP, and ordered the Punjab health department and police to launch a crackdown on sex determination centres operating in Punjab. "I appeal to...

-The Indian Express Say subsidy applications made last year for purchasing machines to clear fields are still pending Ludhiana: While the departments of agriculture and pollution control are active enough these days in their campaign to control burning of wheat fields, farmers complain the agriculture department has failed to call any applications from them for seeking subsidy against the agricultural machinery used to pick straws to avoid burning them in the...