-Livemint.com The govt is taking steps to check rising prices of pulses and may import more to meet domestic demand, says minister New Delhi: The Union government is taking steps to minimize the impact of a likely deficit monsoon on agricultural production and the overall economy, farm minister Radha Mohan Singh said on Wednesday. “We are prepared with contingency plans for 580 districts and are reviewing these on a daily basis. We...

-The Times of India LONDON: The world is getting younger but the world's parliamentarians, elected to govern are getting older. The median age of the global population is around 26.4 years and among the voting age population worldwide, 49% are between the ages of 20 and 39, But the average age of those sitting in the world's parliaments is now between 51-60 years. A 20-year-old Scottish student made history in May 7 general elections...

-Livemint.com Trade minister Nirmala Sitharaman will raise the issue at an informal meeting of WTO trade ministers in Paris on Thursday New Delhi: Hardening its stand on the food security issue, India will insist that countries agree to a permanent solution to the dispute over public stockholding of foodgrains by December as originally promised, even though developing nations have been granted an indefinite interim reprieve. Trade minister Nirmala Sitharaman will raise the...

-The Telegraph Guwahati: Union minister of chemical and fertilizers Ananth Kumar announced here today that the Centre would set up generic medicine units in at least 100 government hospitals in Assam and supply such medicines at 50 to 60 per cent less than the market price. "We will sign a memorandum of understanding with the state government next week and Rs 2.5 lakh will be spent on construction of each unit in...

-The Hindu The Modi government is determined to dismantle the two-pronged welfare paradigm. It is now an established fact that one area where the Narendra Modi administration has acted with a sense of purpose, urgency and resolve is in slashing social expenditure. Be it education, health, agriculture, livelihood security, food security, panchayati raj institutions, drinking water or the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes sub-plan, central government funds earmarked for social protection have been cut. The...