-The Economic Times The government has no immediate plans to raise the retail prices of diesel, kerosene and cooking gas, Oil Minister S. Jaipal Reddy said on Monday. "I am not touching (the prices of) diesel, LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) or kerosene," Reddy said, adding, no date has yet been fixed for a meeting of a ministerial panel to review the prices of the three subsidised fuels. State-owned oil fuel retailers announced an...

-PTI Government today said it planned to provide direct Subsidy to beneficiaries of kerosene oil and a pilot project in this regard in Alwar district of Rajasthan was yielding good results. "Direct Subsidy on kerosene is planned in future ... We have to move towards it. It will be done using UID cards... We are benefiting from the pilot project," minister of state for petroleum and natural gas RPN Singh said in...

Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar’s statement in Parliament that the Government plans to shift subsidies from chemical fertilizers to organic manures has finally earned him some admiration from grassroots organisations working with small and marginal farmers in the country’s vast dry-lands. Pawar’s statement, if translated into policy action, may go a long way in improving the condition of some of India’s poorest farmers in the rain-fed areas which account for...

A panel headed by the PM's chief economic advisor C Rangarajan has recommended exporting 2 million tonnes (mt) of wheat at a Subsidy of Rs 1,500 crore through government channels and another 1 mt through private traders at a Subsidy of Rs 150 crore. Warning that just exports would not be enough to manage the overflowing godowns and could cause political problems, the panel has also recommended distribution of 8 mt...

-The Economic Times Open-ended consumption subsidies on petroleum products have wrought havoc on government finances. Reportedly, the trio of public sector oil marketing companies have of late blocked some 3.8 million parallel household connections of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), in a bid to rationalise the Subsidy outgo. The move to weed out multiple LPG connections does make sense. But we need to keep the big picture in mind and overhaul the pricing and...