-Down to Earth   Reserve Bank of India refuses to bail out three district cooperative banks Kharif sowing season is close at hand, but around 100,000 farmers of Nagpur, Wardha and Buldhana districts in Maharashtra are unlikely to get agricultural loan or hailstorm relief from the District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs) because the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has rejected banking applications of these banks. Worse, fixed deposits worth Rs 1,716 crore belonging...

-The Times of India   Is wealth trickling up instead of down? Yes, says rockstar economist Thomas Piketty whose new book proposing a wealth tax on the super rich has sparked off a firestorm. Excerpts from an exclusive interview... His book Capital in the Twenty-First Century has put the spotlight on Thomas Piketty, transforming the Paris School of Economics professor to global superstar. In these troubled times, he highlights a troubling issue:...

-The Times of India UDAIPUR: A small initiative by the district administration to expand the types of works under MGNREGA to provide a wider range of options to beneficiaries has earned it large appreciation. Following the suit, green vegetable plantation and maintenance work at water bodies to facilitate better irrigation are likely to be adopted statewide as new activities under the scheme. At the recently concluded video conferencing program, the authorities of...

-Reuters OSLO: World powers are running out of time to slash their use of high-polluting fossil fuels and stay below agreed limits on global warming, a draft UN study to be approved this week shows. Government officials and top climate scientists will meet in Berlin from April 7-12 to review the 29-page draft that also estimates the needed shift to low-carbon energies would cost between two and six percent of world...

-AFP GENEVA: Air pollution by sources ranging from cooking fires to auto fumes contributed to an estimated seven million deaths worldwide in 2012, the UN health agency said on Tuesday. "Air pollution, and we're talking about both indoors and outdoors, is now the biggest environmental health problem, and it's affecting everyone, both developed and developing countries," said Maria Neira, the World Health Organization's public and environmental health chief. Globally, pollution was linked to...