-News on Air The government is considering to open Liquified Natural Gas, LPG distribution agencies in every block of the country to bring it within the reach of the common man. This was stated by the Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Mr. RPN Singh in the Lok Sabha yesterday. He informed that during 2009-12, public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) commissioned 905 regular LPG distributorships and 1,026 Rajiv Gandhi...

But non-farm income keeps economy afloat   New Delhi, April 25: The rural growth story is slowly losing sheen because of inflation and rising input costs. In fact, rural price level is higher than urban price level. The March Consumer Price Index number for rural India stood at 116.3, while that for urban India stood at 114.6. Mr Ajay Sriram, Chairman and Senior Managing Director, DCM Sriram Consolidated Ltd, says the rural growth...

-Greater Kashmir Jammu, Apr 25: The wage rate under MGNREGA would be increased from present Rs 131/day to Rs 150 to speed up its implementation at the ground level. The information, according to an official statement, was given in the 4th State Employment Grantee Council meeting held here today under the chairmanship of Minister for rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Law Justice and Parliament Affairs, Ali Muhammad Sagar. Sagar while impressing upon the officers...

-The Times of India KOLKATA: It may be the impact of the efforts put in by officials led by panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee in the past few months, or a matter of outdoing the former Left Front government in terms of figures. But the fact is that the Mamata Banerjee government has spent a whopping Rs 982.86 crore in this March alone under the Mahatma Gandhi National rural Employment Guarantee Act...

Here’s a “growth story” that Standard and Poor’s missed: a piece of official statistics shows good old India has grown — literally. Over 5,000sqkm of wasteland has been converted into “net” usable terrain between 2005 and 2008, according to the Wasteland Atlas of India that was released today. Even Bengal, pilloried for profligacy and other wasteful pastimes, has done its modest bit to transform wasteland. But the big battles against barren land...