-The Business Standard   Orissa has voiced its opposition to the caps proposed in the targeted Public Distribution System (PDS) in the National Food Security (NFS) Bill-2011. The NFS Bill has proposed a cap of 75 per cent in rural areas and 50 per cent in urban areas on the coverage under targeted PDS. The state Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, while welcoming the concept of food security, has objected to fixing limits on targeted...

-The Daily Bhaskar   Sarpanchs and secretaries in Damoh, on Friday, have threatened to stall work under the Mahatma Gandhi National rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) protesting administration's decision to seek details via text messaging of the daily work being undertaken. The sarpanchs have said this was unjustified as it would incur additional financial burden. They added as many of them were not tech-savvy, they would not know how to message. However, district...

-The Indian Express   Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan on Friday came out in support of NCP leader and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar’s suggestion to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the UPA’s flagship rural job guarantee scheme (NREGS) should be suspended for “at least three months in a year” so that agricultural labourers are available during the peak season of agricultural operations in various parts of the country. “He (Sharad Pawar) is a...

Two ministries concerned with rural development are at loggerheads over running of the government's flagship scheme- the Mahatma Gandhi National rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). The agriculture ministry is protesting the way the Rs 40, 000 crore programme is being executed, saying it has increased the burden on agriculture, which is showing just about two percent growth now.   "State-level studies by the Agro Economic Research Centres on wage rate, food security...

-The Telegraph   RBI governor D. Subbarao has expressed concern over Bengal’s low credit-deposit ratio, which means that funds from the cash-starved state are actually meeting the borrowing needs elsewhere. The erstwhile Left government used to blame banks for the skewed ratio. But bankers have blamed it on the poor credit absorption capacity of rural Bengal because of fragmented land holdings — a fallout of the land reforms. After a meeting with chief minister...