-The Times of India Even as the government promised to dole out Rs. 99,000 crore for such schemes in the current fiscal, the states have failed to utilize nearly Rs 30,000 crore meant for various flagship programmes like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). "In 2012-13, about Rs 99,000 crore are being given to the states for rural development programmes. The responsibility for spending money on these programmes is entirely...

-Outlook Don’t blame globalization for inequality – but rather policies hijacked by a few Economic globalization in the sense of expansion of foreign trade and investment is, of course, somewhat anaemic, reflecting the impact of global recession, although still vigorous in the sense of continuous international transmission of technology, information, ideas and social media. But in the world of politics and policymaking a cold wind is blowing, dimming earlier enthusiasm for global...

-The Business Standard Govt pushes biofuels again, despite bitter experience The nearly decade-old programme to promote ethanol-blended petrol has failed to make much headway despite continued attempts by the government to get it going. The latest such attempt was last week, when the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) made the very poor decision to force oil marketing companies to mix five per cent ethanol with petrol throughout the country from...

-PTI The Punjab government is likely to roll out the state’s first agriculture policy by mid-December, aimed to make farming profession economically viable by suggesting measures to raise farmers’ dwindling income and promote crop diversification. “The farm is expected to come out by mid-December. The draft of the agriculture policy is ready and it has been circulated among experts of different fields to elicit their views and opinions so as to incorporate...

-The Economic Times It has never happened since Independence. May be not even in the last 1,000 years what happened during October 2011-September 2012. India exported 10 million tonnes of rice, valued at around $6 billion, becoming the largest exporter of rice, replacing Thailand and Vietnam, generally the two largest exporters of rice. This is now known to many in rice circles. But what is little known is that in 2011-12, India also emerged...