-IPS News BELLARY, India: HuligeAmma, a Dalit woman in her mid-forties, bends over a sewing machine, carefully running the needle over the hem of a shirt. Sitting nearby is Roopa, her 22-year-old daughter, who reads an amusing message on her cell phone and laughs heartily. The pair leads a simple yet contented life – they subsist on half a dollar a day, stitch their own clothes and participate in schemes to educate...

-The Hindu Business Line Arrivals more than double at key markets as farmers resort to sell-off Ahmedabad: Potato farmers in Gujarat are a worried lot. With harvest being bumper and unseasonal rains affecting the quality, potato prices have come down to one-third of what it was last year. The first estimate, as on February 2015, puts the country’s potato output at around 421 lakh tonnes (lt) – about 6 lt higher than last...

-The Hindu A properly designed and implemented procurement law is long overdue. It can improve financial management, and bring large financial and governance benefits Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s 2015-16 budget speech signalled the government’s commitment to formally legalise India’s public procurement system as a part of its continuing reforms in public financial management. Following this, the Ministry of Finance is seeking suggestions to refine the Public Procurement Bill of 2012, introduced by...

-The Hindu Irked Minister puts officials on notice; insurance companies to face action for the fiasco Lucknow: Laxity on the part of officials seems to have impeded the State government’s efforts to ameliorate the sufferings of over 13 lakh farmers who have suffered massive crop loss on account of unseasonal rains and hailstorm in Uttar Pradesh. Thanks to official apathy, coupled with the slow pace of relief work, the distressed farmers have...

-Business Standard Says company failed to start construction in stipulated 6 months; company blames state for delay in approvals Chennai: Beverage company Coca-Cola has decided to withdraw its Rs 500-crore investment in Tamil Nadu and has asked the state government to refund money already pumped into the project. The development comes 31 days before the Tamil Nadu Global Investors’ Meet. A state government official said it was decided to cancel the land allotted to...