-The Hindu Providing people with a modest basic income instead of subsidies would save public revenue With oil prices falling, it was perhaps a good time to fade out fuel subsidies. All subsidies are inefficient and distortionary, and most are regressive. The same could be said of costly public works schemes as well. By contrast, the debate on direct benefit transfers has moved into a more sensible phase, with the posturing criticism of...

-The Hindu Only un-electrified households will be entitled to subsidised fuel New Delhi: Attacking the subsidy regime, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has scrapped the supply of subsidised kerosene through the Public Distribution System (PDS). The Centre plans to write to States asking them to provide subsidised kerosene only to un-electrified households. States which have achieved near 100 per cent electrification will be incentivised to become kerosene-free, a Finance Ministry source told...

-The Tribune The outlook for all things smart is opening up, including Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA). Varanasi, set to develop as a Smart City, will be a lighthouse for sectors seeking sustainable ways to handle demographic pressures, finite environmental resources and climate change. The Finance Minister's budget speech has promised a hundred smart cities. With urban India well covered, it is the turn now of smart agriculture, equipped both to enhance food...

-IANS NAGPUR: A record 120 debt-ridden farmers are reported to have committed suicide in November in the drought-hit Vidarbha and Marathwada regions of Maharashtra, an activist said here Monday. "While at least 65 farmers ended their lives in Marathwada, another 55 took the extreme step in Vidarbha region," Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti president Kishore Tiwari said. In the past 24 hours alone, around two dozen farm folk have committed suicide, according to available...

-The Indian Express New Delhi: "This government is trying to snatch away our rights, of both employment and land. We have come all the way to fight such injustice. Several people in my village voted for this government hoping they would improve our lives but they are doing just the opposite," said Lal Singh from Rajsamand district in Rajasthan. At a time when the NDA government's proposals to bring changes to some...