-Frontline The problem in rural India is not one of too much credit to poor households that leads to debt waivers that damage bank balance sheets, but one of inadequate access to credit from formal sources. IF Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan is to be believed, efforts to help Indian farmers by providing them with cheap(er) credit and relieving them of an unsustainable debt burden only harms them in the...

-Down to Earth Government takes ordinance route to clear Bill, allowing foreign companies to bid for mineral resources The BJP-led Central government has cleared an ordinance to facilitate the auction of minerals, including ores used to produce iron, manganese and aluminium. In a cabinet meeting on Monday, the government approved amendments to the 57-year old Mines and Mineral (Development and Regulation) Act. Among other changes, the amendments will allow multinational companies such...

-The Times of India VISAKHAPATNAM: The Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy ( UMNRE)'s eco-friendly concept of promoting solar powered water pumps among farmers in coastal AP seems to have met with a tepid response as only 200-odd farmers in the five coastal districts falling under the purview of the Eastern Power Distribution Company of AP Limited (APEPDCL) have evinced interest in picking up these pumps. A few months ago,...

-Business Standard The ordinance has returned near absolute power of discretion in land acquisition, except in tribal areas, into the hands of the bureaucracy yet again Even after the National Democratic Alliance's land ordinance, governments will still need the consent of tribal gram sabhas in all Schedule V and VI areas of the country before acquiring land for themselves or for public-private projects. While the land ordinance has done away with the need...

-FirstPost.com   Arvind Panagariya. The man is the message. When the 65 year old planning commission makes way for a putatively leaner NITI Aayog, the expectation is that it will change the era of centralised and top-down planning to a decentralised and participatory process. As expected, apart from the Congress ruled states, the move didn't face any noteworthy resistance. The Tamil Nadu government appeared to even rejoice its demise. However, what even the critics...