-The New Indian Express HYDERABAD: The Telangana Government is contemplating a hike in price as well as quantity of rice given on subsidy to white ration card holders through the public distribution system. The cabinet sub-committee headed by Finance Minister Etela Rajender, which met at the Secretariat Tuesday, discussed the issue plus the mechanism to weed out bogus cards by using the data compiled during the intensive household survey. Later, briefing mediapersons, the...

-The Business Standard In a move that could lessen the Centre's foodgrain procurement burden, it has allowed the Punjab government to purchase and distribute grains in advance to beneficiaries of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) for the next few months. As a result, 800,000-900,000 tonnes, mostly wheat, will not come to the Centre's pool for a while. Punjab is one of the main wheat and rice producers in the country. It had...

-The Business Standard The state govt will rent out heavy machinery to farmers on a rental basis Dharwad (Karnataka): Agriculture Minister Krishna Byregowda has said that the government will open 186 customised centres in the state to enhance yield and overcome the shortage of agriculture labourer. Through these centres, the government will rent out heavy machinery to farmers on a rental basis. He said this at the opening of the Krishi Mela...

-The Business Standard Make schemes mobile and portable, by focusing on people and not products India spends close to four per cent of its GDP on an alphabet soup of welfare schemes and subsidies - it has become a welfare state before becoming a developed state. Despite its significant costs, India's welfare system is neither comprehensive nor very effective - subject to huge leakages and corruption, and not well knit into...

-The Business Standard Says increase in the subsidised foodgrain allocation will put pressure on the food subsidy bill Union Food Minister Ram Vilas Paswan on Tuesday said the government has no plans to raise subsidised foodgrain allocations under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) from 5 kg to 7 kg a person a month. Under the Act, each eligible person gets 5 kg of rice at Rs 5 a kg or wheat at...