-The Economic Times I have often been asked how Chhattisgarh manages the contradictory pulls of sound fiscal health and welfare schemes. How did we manage to roll out food and nutrition security to not just the most needy among us but to almost the entire population of a state that has had a history of malnutrition and neglect, without jeopardising Chhattisgarh's finances? As finance minister for the last eight years, I have...

-The Hindu The move to redefine 'handloom' is in the interest of powerloom operators who will be able to corner benefits meant for weavers "Any loom, other than powerloom; and includes any hybrid loom on which, at least one process for weaving requires manual intervention or human energy for production." (The new definition of handloom proposed by Ministry of Textiles) The textile industry in India comprises three sectors - the mill, the powerloom and...

-The Economics Times NEW DELHI: The government plans to give a fresh impetus to public-private partnership by overhauling the framework for such projects on the basis of a study being undertaken by the Planning Commission, which is likely to submit its recommendations within a month. The move comes after a few big PPP projects in infrastructure sector fell apart while those in the power sector have been struggling to sail through. "We...

-PTI NEW DELHI: To ensure sufficient supply of milk at affordable rates, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar today said there is a need to increase the share of organised sector in milk business to 50 per cent by the end of the current (12th) Five Year Plan in March, 2017. Despite severe drought in some states like Maharashtra this year, milk production has not reduced, thereby providing good supplementary income to farmers and...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has got a reluctant railways on board for its ambitious bill seeking a blanket ban on manual scavenging. The Prohibition of Empowerment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Bill, 2012, which was cleared last week by the cabinet, had been pending for over a year because the railways did not want to be part of it. The largest public carrier had...