-The Hindu Business Line New Delhi: The government has painted a grim picture of the crop insurance scenario in the country. Making a presentation before the Finance Standing Committee of Parliament, government representatives said the penetration of crop insurance was just about 23 per cent (369.94 lakh) of the total number of farmers. A little more than 22 per cent of the gross crop area (455.63 lakh hectares) is covered under four...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Aadhaar card is now the most widely held identification document in the country with a voluntary enrolment of 92 crore people. It is also perhaps the sole ID for many of its holders, including many families below the poverty line. In comparison, 5.7 crore people have passports, 17 crore people PAN cards, 60 crore voter ID cards, 15 crore ration cards and 17.3 crore driving...

-The Hindu The Compensatory Afforestation Bill has raised significant money, which must be used to restore existing forests rather than on artificial plantations On Parliament’s wooden desks, a Bill is knocking. The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill seeks to govern how forests will be raised, cut, and resurrected across India. It will be looking at how a fund of Rs. 38,000 crore, collected from cutting down forests, is to be used. Meant initially just...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India, market regulator Sebi and the Gujarat government today petitioned the Supreme Court to modify its earlier order restricting the use of Aadhaar cards to a handful of schemes. In separate applications, the petitioners requested that authorities be allowed to demand the production of Aadhaar cards for all services, social welfare schemes and securities transactions. Else, they argued, the precluded schemes would be affected. The...

-The Hindu YADGIR (Karnataka): It looks like Narasappa Kotriki has pulled a rabbit out of his hat. The marginal farmer from Tipadampalli village in Yadgir district, who suffered crop loss, has found rearing rabbits quite profitable. When he fell into bad times, he purchased 100 rabbits (70 male and 30 female) with Rs 1.2 lakh. He spent another Rs. 2.8 lakh for other infrastructure — cages for the rabbits and a shed...