-Hindustan Times When Prime Minister Narendra Modi met some prominent billionaires last month, seeking quicker job-creation and investments, many industrialists complained that falling rural demand for goods was rocking their boats too. Incomes of India’s 833 million mostly poor rural population – a huge market for all kinds of goods – are barely rising and it is a cause for worry. Farming contributes just 15% of India’s $2 trillion economy, but half...

-PTI Bhubaneswar: Rejecting the Centre's decision of providing "allowance" to school children for mid-day meal (MDM), Odisha government today asked opposition BJP not to politicise the National Food Security Act to be implemented in the state from November 1. "Allowance to school children instead of MDM is not at all acceptable to the state. This will defeat the very purpose of the MDM for reduction of drop out rates. The Centre on...

-TheWire.in Since April 1, 2015, India’s cooking gas subsidies have been distributed solely by electronic transfer through the Direct Benefit Transfer for Liquefied Petroleum Gas scheme (otherwise known as DBTL or PAHAL). Under this system, which has replaced the direct sale of cooking gas cylinders at subsidised prices, households place an order for LPG with their gas distributor, receive an amount equivalent to the current subsidy amount via electronic transfer to...

-The Indian Express Delhi lost the window of opportunity to avoid an outbreak because of a governance deficit; first because the state was in election mode and then because of the AAP’s internal squabbles. The past few weeks have witnessed substantial media coverage on the dengue outbreak in Delhi. Heartrending stories of clearly avoidable deaths gave the crisis a human face. Focusing on Delhi, most sought to expose the lack of...

-Hindustan Times Hyderabad: In this year’s Telugu hit Srimanthudu, actor Mahesh Babu plays the sole heir of a multi-crore business empire who goes in search of his roots to the backwoods of Andhra Pradesh and adopts a run-down village to turn around its fortunes. The film that won critical acclaim and box office success was also praised by Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu at a time when the state government has launched an...