-Business Today Social sector spending and investments in infrastructure development could be the highlights of the forthcoming Union Budget 2018-19, credit rating agency ICRA forecasts. It expects increase in budgetary allocations for social infrastructure and social security spending, such as NREGA (rural job security), food subsidy (food security), insurance schemes and welfare pensions. Larger allocations for infrastructure related to cold chains, etc., considered to boost the agricultural sector and the rural...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Puducherry administration has approached the Union food ministry to seek a return to the system of distributing subsidised foodgrain, instead of crediting the subsidy to the bank accounts of beneficiaries. The Union territory administration has claimed the beneficiaries are not using the subsidy amount to buy foodgrain. "The chief minister recently put up this proposal before Union minister Ram Vilas paswan. The UT administration...

-Scroll.in A study commissioned in 2015 said that for the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana to succeed, the price of gas cylinders would have to be reduced. In an interview to TimesNow on the weekend, Prime Minister Narendra Modi extolled the virtues of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, which offers free gas connections to the rural poor. “What will be the ease of living for a poor woman, who uses a stove...

-The Hindu Business Line Likely to be announced in Budget; will help tackle malnutrition, support ryots Bengaluru: In the National Year of Millets, the Centre proposes to adopt a mission-mode approach to promote the nutrient-rich cereals, including sorghum, ragi and foxtail millets. Official sources said a Millet Mission is being proposed with an outlay of ?800 crore for the next two years to boost production of these cereals, which are naturally rich with...

-The Hindu Many States have initiated ‘reforms’ of the public distribution system that are hurting millions of people India’s public distribution system (PDS) is in danger of being derailed in several States across the country. Recent disruptions of the PDS have taken different forms, from compulsory biometric authentication to so-called direct benefit transfer (DBT). The consequences are alarming, but tend to go unreported. Biometric mix-ups Jharkhand is a prime example of this problem. By...