India moved a step closer to implementing cash transfers of direct subsidies and social welfare payments after a high-level panel presented the blueprint for effecting it through an Aadhaar-based payment gateway. Accepting the report, which details how all payments and cash transfers can be made electronically, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee indicated that it will be the key to plug leakages and ensure more targeted spending under the government’s social welfare programmes. The...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Total Matching Records found : 1096
Dr Abhijit Sen, Member-Planning Commission of India, interviewed by Ajay Vir Jakhar and Paranjoy Guha Thakurta
Dr Abhijit Sen is Member, Planning Commission of India. He is a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Cambridge (currently on leave as Professor of Economics at the Jawaharlal Nehru University) and has also taught at the Universities of Sussex, Oxford and Cambridge. Besides serving various think tanks in the states and at the centre, Dr Sen has been a consultant with UNDP, ILO, FAO and various other multilateral...
More »Mayawati sucks happiness of sugar mills to give one sweet deal to 3.5 million sugarcane farmers in UP by Man Mohan Rai
Passing by dense sugarcane and mustard fields, and potholed tracks on the outskirts of rural Lakhimpur Kheri, one reaches the large residential enclave of Mithun Kumar on the Uttar Pradesh-Nepal border. Introductions done, the 52-year-old proudly informs he has just booked a 2,000 sq ft plot in the upcoming Omaxe City township in Lucknow. "It will also have a club house and a mini golf-course once fully developed," he adds. As farmers...
More »Agri Min pitches for crop loan at 3% in Budget
-PTI In its Budget wish-list, the Agriculture Ministry has demanded lowering of interest rate on crop loans to 3% for those farmers who pay in time, from the existing 4%. According to sources, the ministry has suggested an additional 1% interest subvention (subsidy) on short-term crop loans of up to Rs 3 lakh to farmers who pay their dues on time. Other farmers get crop loans at seven% interest rate. The 2012-13 Budget...
More »Government projects record food output by Ruchira Singh
India is likely to see record foodgrain production in the current year on good rains, the second advance estimate of the agriculture ministry showed on Friday. Output of total foodgrains comprising rice, wheat, coarse cereals and pulses was seen at 250.42 million tonnes (mt) in the July-June crop year of 2011-12, up 2.3% from the year-ago 244.78 mt, the data showed. This is significant as the optimistic projection comes just ahead of...
More »
