-The Tribune Chief Minister pushes for crop diversification, says will provide farmers all help Chandigarh: Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today said the state government would provide 50 per cent subsidy to farmers willing to rear cows for producing organic dairy products, besides setting up a board to sort out issues and requirements pertaining to organic farming. Addressing participants on the concluding day of the National Organic Farming Convention here, Badal said the...

-Reuters NEW DELHI: India's main public health programmes, aimed at millions of rural poor, have been in disarray for months because the government changed the way that over $1.3 billion of central funds were distributed, according to data and letters seen by Reuters. In a bid last year to give states more power, the Union health ministry started sending funds for public health programmes to state treasuries, instead of direct transfers to...

-Economic and Political Weekly Since independence, India's national health policies have been aspirational but the end results have been limited. The National Health Policy 2015, which is in the process of being finalised, should, in place of the earlier "broadband" approach, adopt a "narrow focus" on primary healthcare through the National Rural Health Mission. The latter has focused on primary healthcare and has shown visible results. A slew of suggestions as...

-Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA) Press Release   New Delhi: The direction indicated by the Finance Minister's Budget Speech in general and that of the taxation policies in particular indicate a quantum leap being taken towards market fundamentalism. In the absence of any increase in the overall spending capacity of the government (Centre and States combined), the steps for fiscal decentralization (from Centre to States) have been constrained, implying only...

-Press Information Bureau/ Ministry of Finance The plan outlay of 2015-16 reflects the compositional shift in the allocations for various Programmes and Schemes in view of high devolution; 42% of Union Taxes, to States as per the recommendation of 14th Finance Commission. Making his Budget Speech while presenting the General Budget 2015-16, the Finance Minister, Shri Arun Jaitley said that consequent to this substantially higher devolution, many schemes on the State...