-DNA   Shetkari Sanghatana (SS), along with Prahar and Kisan Mitra, has organised a rally from Amravati to chief minister Prithviraj Chavan’s native place, Kumbhargaon in Satara district, to voice the demands of farmers in the state. The rally will start on October 23 and reach Kumbhargaon on October 27. The campaign aims to awaken the state government to the deteriorating status of farmers in Maharashtra, pressurise it to fulfill the demands of...

-The Telegraph   Chief minister Arjun Munda today slammed the poverty benchmark fixed by the Planning Commission. “The poverty yardstick is faulty and will put a poor state like Jharkhand at a great disadvantage,” the chief minister told The Telegraph. “How can a person survive on Rs 32 daily in urban areas and Rs 26 in rural areas? Munda asked and sought a central review for the sake of the poor. The fear in...

The World Bank has suggested sale of excess public land in Indian cities to fund infrastructure projects. Collaborating with the India Development Foundation and the Public Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility , the World Bank has formed a steering committee headed by Vijay Kelkar, chairman of the 13th finance commission, to formulate a proposal on monetizing excess public land. Earlier this month, the bank's India director Roberto Zagha Patricia Annez met stakeholders,...

-IANS   The ongoing enumeration for a socio-economic census in the country will not be affected by the poverty line cut-off spelled out by the Planning Commission, according to a senior rural development ministry adviser. The Planning Commission informed the Supreme Court Tuesday that poverty line could be provisionally placed at around Rs.32 a day per capita in urban areas and Rs.26 in rural areas. Manjula Krishnan, chief economic adviser in the minstry, said...

In a significant move, prominent economists on Monday made a forceful plea to delink food entitlements from the “faulty” poverty measures put out by the Planning Commission. Asserting that under-nutrition was much more widespread in the country than income poverty “however defined,” the economists sought restoration of the universal Public Distribution System (PDS) “as the best way forward'' in combating hunger and poverty. “This is not only feasible within the available fiscal...