-Outlook Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has assets worth around Rs 10.73 crore, double that of last year, but a number of his cabinet colleagues are much richer than him. Among the richer cabinet ministers are Praful Patel with assets of approximately Rs 52 crore, Sharad Pawar with property worth around Rs 22 crore and M K Azagiri with Rs 9.50 crore, according to updated list of assets of the ministers posted on...

-Outlook Government today decided to release Rs 10,901 crore to banks as interest subvention for giving crop loans up to Rs 3 lakh to farmers in the current fiscal. The Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh decided "to continue interest subvention to Public Sector Banks, Regional Rural Banks (RRBs), Cooperatives Banks and Nabard to enable them to provide short- term crop loans up to Rs 3 lakh to farmers at 7...

-The Economic Times The Centre plans to make bank creditaccess easier for rural population, especially in states were poverty is high. In Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Gujarat, the gap between credit available to self help groups and the demand for credit is stark. At present, 80 per cent of all bank support to SHGs is in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. In Uttar Pradesh, Madhya...

-Live Mint The current policy on compensating landowners could adversely affect character of India’s future growth The Parliament is currently considering a land acquisition, rehabilitation and resettlement Bill (LARR Bill), as are various state legislatures. These are likely to affect the pace and character of future growth in India in a significant way.  Setting up new industries, service establishments and real estate development will inevitably require land to be acquired from rural areas....

-People's Democracy IT seems the Sheila Dixit government of Delhi, backed by powerful elements in the UPA-2 central government, will let nothing stand in the way of water privatisation in the capital. Several earlier attempts going back many years to fully or partially privatise distribution of water, especially the big loan application to the World Bank in 2005, were foiled by vigilant community organisations, public interest groups, trade unions and political...