The government proposes to introduce a bill to regulate microfinance institutions (MFIs), accused of aggressive loan recovery practices, minister of state for finance Namo Narain Meena said on Tuesday. The move follows tight scrutiny of the fast-growing, largely unregulated, small loans sector after fears of large-scale defaults due to high interest rates and reports of suicides due to mounting debt. “The Department of Financial Services proposes to introduce the Micro Finance (Development...

Jharkhand is one of seven states of India having large number of illiterate persons. The other states, where large number of illiterate persons resides, are Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Mrs. D. Purandeswari, the union Minster of state for Human Resource Development, informed Rajya Sabha during the winter session in reply to a member’s question from Mr. Parimal Nathwani. These seven states of India have as...

India has provided employment to 1.79 crore households under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in 2010. Information and confirmation to this effect was made by Indian Minister of State for Rural Development Pradeep Jain said in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that As of 30th June, a total of 179,43,189 families in the country have been provided employment under MGNREGS. According to...

More than 1.79 crore households across the country have been provided employment under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) this year, the Government said today. As of June 30, a total of 179,43,189 families in the country have been provided employment under MGNREGS , Minister of State for Rural Development Pradeep Jain said in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha. According to the sate-wise data presented...

Even as the Indian Network for Climate Change Assessment — dubbed “the Indian Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)” — released its first report on the impact of climate change in four regions of the country, it admitted that significant research gaps and lack of extensive databases were hampering Indian climate science. Long-term localised data was not available on vegetation and forest cover, socio-economic trends, farm inputs, pests and crop diseases,...