-The Hindu Some changes were ordered on the direct instructions of the Prime Minister The Prime Minister's office has repeatedly ordered and orchestrated dilution of environment and forest clearances in order to fast-pace industrial projects, documents with The Hindu show. In a series of orders and missives sent to the Union Environment and Forests Ministry over 2012-2013, the PMO instructed that regulations and norms had to be diluted or done away with. These...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Kejriwal's swearing-in ceremony expenses equal to food bill of UPA's anniversary bash -Arunav Sinha
-The Times of India LUCKNOW: Learning a lesson from the lavish anniversary bash of the United Progressive Alliance, which had a number of exquisite food items, the Aam Aadmi Party decided to invest less on food items served during the December 28, 2013 swearing-in ceremony of Arvind Kejriwal held at Delhi's Ramlila Ground, and settled for Rs 405 per head, while the overall expenses stood at Rs 6,33,802. This is in stark...
More »The next farm challenge
-The Hindu Business Line One sector in which the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) can claim some success during its 10 years in power is agriculture. Between 2003-04 and 2013-14, India's foodgrain output rose from 213.19 million tonnes (mt) to 263.20 mt. Production of pulses and oilseeds has also gone up from under 15 and 25 mt to nearly 20 and 33 mt respectively, after registering near stagnation in the previous decade....
More »Why did Chidambaram shut down New Delhi?-Mihir S Sharma
-The Business Standard The economic logic - and political reasons - behind the giant shift of spending power to the states Interim Budgets are not supposed to do this. This is precisely what they are not supposed to do. They are not supposed to lay out a policy change so vast it disempowers the next central government. But that's what P Chidambaram has done - and it appears to have been...
More »MGNREGA: A tale of wasted efforts
-Live Mint The scheme represents Rs.2.3 trillion spent on wasteful rural consumption This week marked the eighth anniversary of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government's key rural intervention, launched in 200 districts initially in February 2006. To the extent that such populist schemes helped raise wages without raising productivity. They have contributed more to inflation than to rural wealth. Worse, such schemes have...
More »