-The Indian Express Stress faced by certain industries, drought in some areas hurt patronage of financial schemes for MSMEs, says State Level Bankers’ Committee report Ahmedabad: The Union government’s high profile financial aid schemes meant to support the micro, small and medium enterprises of the country have not performed as well as expected in Gujarat, a report of the State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) released on Tuesday showed. Districts such as...

-The Hindu Civil society groups to launch nationwide drive on March 23 In a bid to reclaim the poll narrative post-Pulwama, major civil society networks have joined hands to launch a nationwide campaign on March 23, the death anniversary of Bhagat Singh, which is commemorated as Shaheed Diwas or Martyrs’ Day. The “Desh Mera, Vote Mera, Mudda Mera” campaign will aim to move the focus away from nationalism to “real issues” such as...

-The Telegraph The CSE alleges that the surveyors did not visit all the Cities they ranked Calcutta: The recently released annual survey report on the Swachh Bharat mission, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet project, paints an “over-exaggerated” picture of its success and is riddled with “anomalies”, an environment think tank has claimed. The Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment has said the Swachh Survekshan 2019 was a rushed job, sped up to allow...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Flagging the deadly impact of air and water pollution that annually claims at least nine million lives globally, a new UN report on Wednesday called for urgent action to save humanity from the disastrous consequences of environmental degradation. It warned that Cities and regions in Asia, middle-east and Africa could see millions of premature deaths by mid-century if the nations fail to drastically scale up environmental...

-The Indian Express Pankaja Munde’s ministry accused of tweaking tender norms to favour big players and industrialists. Mumbai: IN FRESH trouble for the Devendra Fadnavis government, the Supreme Court (SC) has struck down tenders worth Rs 6,300 crore issued in 2016 by the Maharashtra women and child development department for supplying Take Home Ration (THR) as supplementary nutrition at daycare centres or anganwadis in the state. A bench comprising Justice Arun Mishra...