Right time for policy reform The government is set to face disappointment on its expectation that the fertiliser subsidy will go down sharply this year due to a softening of international prices of fertilisers. It now appears almost certain that the total payable subsidy in 2009-10 may be around Rs 70,000 crore, against the budgetary provision of under Rs 50,000 crore. Since the government has made it clear that no additional...

The outcome of the historic climate change negotiations in Copenhagen hinges on the issues of emissions reductions and financing, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today as he urged world leaders to use the final days of the talks to strike an ambitious new agreement. The Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has found that to stave off the worst effects of climate change, industrialized countries must slash greenhouse...

Farmers of Chandauli district in Uttar Pradesh, who have been served a notice for acquisition of land for a freight corridor for Mamata Banerjee’s railway ministry, have decided to rope in all those who had backed the Singur agitation for a movement against the project. As a first, the farmers have written to Medha Patkar, the spearhead of the Narmada Bachao Andolan, who is one of the key social activists...

Welcoming the proposal by the Railways for setting up a coach manufacturing unit on the land that was earlier acquired by the State government for Tata Motors’s small car project which was subsequently relocated from Singur, the State’s Industries Minister, Nirupam Sen told the West Bengal Assembly here on Wednesday that it was one case with a hope of achieving consensus in the State on setting up industry. According to...

The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday passed by voice vote the contentious Essential Commodities (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2009, (sugarcane pricing Bill) after the Central Government assured the House that State governments would not be required to pay the difference of the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) for sugarcane set by the Centre and the State Advised Price fixed by the States. On persistent requests by opposition members led by Venkiah...