Compensation for land for BMIC hiked to Rs. 40 lakh an acre Following widespread protests and demands by farmers for higher compensation for land acquired for the controversial Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor (BMIC) project, the State Cabinet on Thursday decided to increase the compensation paid for 1,916 acres acquired in three villages by the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE), which is executing the expressway project. Land in Gonipura and Thippur located near...

Expressing dissatisfaction over the slow rate of stock movement from Haryana, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Thursday urged Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution K. V. Thomas to speed up the movement of wheat stock procured by various procurement agencies. An official spokesman said that Mr. Hooda met the Union Minister here. Prof. Thomas appreciated the procurement process in the State and said that Haryana was...

Food inflation fell to 8.53 per cent for the week ended April 23 on the back of fall in prices of pulses, reversing the upward trend seen in the previous fortnight. Food inflation in the previous week was 8.76 per cent. The latest numbers are likely to come as a relief to the government and the RBI, especially at a time when the central bank's monetary policy for the fiscal, released...

The world’s population is projected to surge past 9 billion before 2050 and then reach 10.1 billion by the end of the century if current fertility rates continue at expected levels, according to United Nations figures unveiled today.   Most of the increase will come from so-called “high fertility countries,” mainly in sub-Saharan Africa but also in some nations in Asia, Oceania and Latin America, the figures reveal. The 2010 Revision of World...

Alarmed at the declining figures of female population in Maharashtra, as revealed by the provisional census of 2011, the state health department has launched a crackdown on clinics, which illegally perform sex determination tests. According to department officials, they will deploy 'Decoy Sting Operation Teams' at the district level. This team, which consists of khabris (informants), will track down clinics performing sex determination tests. Local health NGOs will also be...