-Livemint A total of 4.04 million bank accounts have been cleared for loan waiver that will benefit 2.68 million farmers Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh on Thursday finalized the norms for loan waiver for farmers and identified 2.28 million families as beneficiaries in the first phase of what it called a "debt redemption scheme". Loans will be written off in two phases, Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said at a press briefing....

-Livemint.com The experts are said to be likely to be in India starting 9 December, inspecting units and laboratories mostly in Gujarat and Maharashtra New Delhi: After indicating to revoke the import ban on mangoes and four other farm produce from India, a team of European experts will visit the country next week to inspect pesticide levels in sesame seeds used in confectionery. The experts are likely to visit India starting 9...

-The Indian Express Eight years after the Sachar committee report on the condition of Muslims and creation of a Ministry of Minority Affairs, a post-Sachar evaluation committee, headed by former JNU professor Amitabh Kundu, has concluded that though a start has been made in addressing development deficits of the community, government interventions have not quite matched in scale the large numbers of the marginalised. Poverty levels among Muslims, the committee found, remained...

-Economic and Political Weekly The National Democratic Alliance government has constituted the IPR Think Tank which, among other things, is to draft the National Intellectual Property Rights Policy. India may not have a policy per se but it has a strong legislation on IPRs, a functioning patents office and mechanisms to grant patents as well as protect consumer interests. The Think Tank has other issues it needs to address, but is...

-Livemint India, US resolve differences over public stockholding for food security, clearing way for WTO trade facilitation deal New Delhi: India and the US have resolved differences over public stockholding of foodgrains with the US agreeing to an indefinite "peace clause" pending a permanent settlement-a development that makes possible the most significant global deal since the 1990s. US support for the massive public food stockholding programme also signals a political victory for...