-Livemint.com Starting September, govt will usher in direct cash transfers to Aadhaar-linked bank accounts of beneficiaries in Puducherry, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli New Delhi: The government has decided to bite the bullet on public distribution system (PDS) reforms. Starting September, it will usher in direct cash transfers to the Aadhaar-linked bank accounts of beneficiaries in Puducherry, Chandigarh and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. In Daman and Diu, PDS benefits will be provided...

-The Telegraph Ranchi/Jamshedpur: National Food Security Act 2013, which was to debut in Jharkhand's eight districts tomorrow, will now be launched as a single helping across all 24 districts from September 1, state food, civil supplies and consumer affairs minister Saryu Roy said today. The food Act will cover 2.65 crore beneficiaries out of 3.3 crore in Jharkhand, minister Roy said at a news meet in Jamshedpur this evening. This includes 40,09,000...

-Business Standard Patna/Nalanda: Baldev Prasad Mandal, a native of Painathi panchayat in Bihar's Patna district, sold 250 quintals of rice to the village-based primary agriculture credit societies (PACS), an agency responsible for procuring foodgrain directly from farmers at the rate of Rs 1,660 a quintal in March this year. Even as the new kharif season is about to begin, Mandal is one of the many farmers in the state who are...

-Business Standard Nations below a level of per-capita GDP representing a peaking point could be allowed to expand total emissions The world's climate change negotiators will meet again in December in Paris. The good news is that all countries, including developing countries, have agreed to announce their "intended nationally determined contributions" (INDCs). The bad news is that they are nowhere near an agreement on action by individual countries that could limit global...

-The Hindu Huge subsidy of 5 percentage points being leveraged. Pointing to a possible diversion of subsidised funds meant for farmers to non-agricultural uses, a research paper by the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) has found that the crop loans extended in India are in fact close to exceeding the total expenditure on farm sector inputs. In 2012-13, the aggregate short-term credit — provided primarily to finance the purchase...