-The Business Standard Scheme faces pincer attack with a proposed higher proportion of expenditure on material, reducing the budget available to pay wages The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) faces a pincer attack under the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, with parallel moves promising to shrink and mutate the nature of the scheme. Two of the moves have been revealed - a proposed higher proportion of expenditure on material,...

-The Indian Express This July, I spoke with a farmer in Angul district, Odisha. During the kharif season, most of his 45-acre farm is devoted to paddy, but during the rabi season, he grows a variety of pulses, oilseeds and vegetables. He is currently president of the village watershed committee, working to implement an impressive programme to halt soil erosion and water runoff. He pointed out newly constructed contour and farm...

-The Business Standard   NC Saxena, a former member of the National Advisory Council believes that the regulatory regime in the states continues to be oppressive. In an e-mailed interview with Aditi Phadnis, Saxena says that the fundamental problem in India is the low tax-GDP ratio and neither the last government nor the current one seems interested in increasing revenues. Edited excerpts: * The new government appears to be watering down a lot...

-The Telegraph In India's towns and cities, the Swachh Bharat campaign will be looking to clean up not just the filth but also red tape and funds diversion. For the first time, the Centre aims to deal directly with the urban local bodies in funding projects without routing the proposal-clearance-sanction process through the state governments. At stake is the Rs 67,000 crore that the Union urban development ministry plans to spend under the...

-The Hindustan Times   In what can be a boost for the Make in India slogan the industry and lab are entering into new areas of partnership-latest being Transfer of technology from a CSIR lab to make multi nutritional health capsule from tea extracts. CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, Palampur in Himachal Pradesh has developed technology for extraction of catechins using water and green solvents without using any hazardous chemicals. The technology...