-The Hindu Consumers in Tier-I and II cities will have to submit affidavits to their LPG distributors stating that their annual income is below Rs.10 lakh to continue to receive cooking gas subsidy, according to Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.“In the Tier-I and Tier-II cities, when somebody comes to refill gas, they are asked to sign an affidavit regarding their income,” the Minister said. “It is a matter of trust. We have to...

-Livemint.com Pulses use less water per unit crop and also address hidden hunger The severe drought across India should hopefully help focus attention on the overuse of water in agriculture. A data analysis by Roshan Kishore in this newspaper last week showed that the average water footprint for five major crops—rice, wheat, maize, sugarcane and cotton—is far higher than global averages. At the root of the problem is a policy framework that...

-Livemint.com World Bank report says combined effects of growing populations, rising incomes and expanding cities will see demand for water rising exponentially, while supply becomes more erratic and uncertain New Delhi: Water scarcity, exacerbated by climate change, could cost some regions up to 6% of their gross domestic product (GDP), spur migration and spark conflict, said a report released by the World Bank on Tuesday. The report, High and dry: Climate change, water...

-Livemint.com IMF points to problem with redistribution of incomes as high growth rates are not reducing inequality New Delhi: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that both India and China face the social risk of growing inequality. By implication, it is suggesting that there is a problem with the redistribution of incomes in both these economies as high economic growth rates are not reducing inequality. In its regional economic outlook for Asia...

-BBC French economist Thomas Piketty says there is still a "huge" gap in data about income tax in India. Official figures just released show only 1% of Indians paid tax in 2013, while 2% filed a tax return. Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that publishing the data was a "big step towards transparency and informed policy-making". But Mr Piketty told the BBC the data was too thin to draw significant conclusions about levels of...