-Pragativadi Bhubaneswar: With the Centre restricting subsidised cooking gas cylinders to six per year, the Odisha government has been contemplating to provide certain relief to BPL families having LPG connections. The food, supplies and consumer welfare department has, sources said, undertaken an exercise with the LPG providing oil companies to work out a strategy for the purpose. Before taking any decision, the state government has proposed to seek information from the oil marketing...

-PTI The price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) used as cooking gas has been increased by Rs 11.42 per cylinder after the government decided to raise the commission paid to dealers. Petrol and diesel prices may also go up marginally as the oil ministry is thinking of raising the dealers’ commission by at least 23 paisa and 10 paisa a litre respectively. On Friday, the ministry issued orders raising the commission paid to...

-The Economic Times Housewives can expect tough times ahead maintaining household budgets as all indicators suggest that prices of non-subsidized domestic cooking gas cylinders are expected to go up till March, 2013, much before they exhaust their quota of another three subsidized cooking gas cylinders. This is because the price of domestic liquefied petroleum gas (LPG or cooking gas) has been linked to international gas prices which typically shoots up during the...

-The Business Standard Skimmed milk powder 'buffer' might raise prices  The government’s proposal that a buffer stock of skimmed milk powder (SMP) be created in order to minimise volatility in milk prices is so unsound a proposition that it should be shelved. The proposal, sent to the inter-ministerial group on inflation by the food ministry, involves keeping a reserve stock of SMP with milk-processing units by offering them a handsome subsidy. The...

-The Hindustan Times In response to the widespread protests and the nation-wide hartal last Thursday, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addressed the nation on Friday and tried to explain why these decisions had become inevitable. The thrust of his argument was, “We need a revival in investor confidence, domestically and globally.” For this, the current high fiscal deficit must be contained and, hence, the hike in the prices of diesel and cap on...