-Press Information Bureau (Ministry of Panchayati Raj) Government has released Rs. 3720.19 crore during first year of Twelfth Five Year Plan that is 2012-13 under the Backward Regions Grant Fund(B.R.G.F.) Programme being implemented by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj. Answering a question in Lok Sabha today, Panchayati Raj Minister Shri V.KISHORE CHANDRA DEO said, the released amount is 99.63 percent of the total Revised Estimate (RE) allocation of Rs. 3734 crore for...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Fertilizer minister Srikant Jena may keep claiming that annually 30 lakh tonne of highly subsidized urea for agriculture is being smuggled to chemical factories, but the government says states have reported only 24 such cases since 2010-11. Jena had recently said at a conference of Indian Fertilizer Association (IFA) that there are serious signs of mismanagement in an information technology-driven era when targeted farmers can be...

-Press Information Bureau (Ministry of Finance) Loan waiver to farmers was provided by the Central Government under Agricultural Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme (ADWDRS), 2008. Under the scheme, direct agricultural loans disbursed by Scheduled Commercial Banks, Local Area Banks, Cooperative Credit Institutions and Regional Rural Banks between 1st April, 1997 to 31st March, 2007 to farmers, which were overdue as on 31st December, 2007 and remained unpaid upto 29th February, 2008...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The draft national policy on domestic workers, awaiting the Union Cabinet's nod, must be approved at the earliest. Activists and NGOs echoed this view at a panel discussion on Wednesday. "A national policy is the first step towards ensuring rights for domestic workers. It is also the first step before legislation is enacted. But despite our persistent efforts, progress is so slow," said Varghese Theckanath, convenor,...

-Press Information Bureau (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare) Healthcare for all, particularly for the rural areas has been a priority for the Government. The health indicators like Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), Total Fertility Rate (TFR), and nutritional status of children under 3 years including prevalence of anemia amongst them and pregnant women in rural area are considerably poor as compared to urban areas. The key health indicators are as under: Public...