Ranchi: It was a budget aimed at sweetening the bitter price rise pill. From cutting down VAT on diesel, sweets and ice- cream to making foodgrains available at Re 1 per kg for the poor, deputy chief minister Raghubar Das today presented an annual budget which focused on rural development, food security and social welfare. Chanting the “inclusive growth” mantra, Das, the BJP face in the Shibu Soren government, showed...

A three-hour drive from Delhi a medieval drama is playing out. A khap — or caste — panchayat in Haryana’s Bhiwani district has asked a man and his family to leave the village because he has married a woman of the same “gotra”. The family sought police protection after the panchayat threatened a social boycott and pronounced a ban on the sale of their land, saying that it would be...

In the backdrop of climate change and other environmental challenges, Kerala announced a Rs 1000-crore 'Green Fund' for the next five years while earmarking an initial provision of Rs 100 crore in the budget for 2010-11. State Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac, who presented the budget in the state assembly, said the fund would be utilized to take up projects to preserve natural assets like forests and promote green...

Failure of kharif crop and mounting debts stated to be reasons  The interest rate on private loans ranges between 24 and 36 per cent The district witnessed 15 deaths in 3 days during November Sixty-nine farmers from Adilabad district committed suicide during the kharif season that lasted from August to November 2009 and the number grew to 93 by December 15, if reports from the non-governmental organisations and farmers’ associations in Andhra...

The bane of farmers’ suicides has taken Orissa in its vice-like grip with five ending their lives in every seven days. The trend has grown by over six per cent in 2008 as the State has climbed the ladder at a notoriously fast pace to rank 12th of the 28 states with most farmer deaths, the statistics released by the National Crime Records Bureau has revealed. The growth is over 40...