-Live Mint The prime source of financing will be from general taxation or public exchequer, says Planning Commission Government-run hospitals may stop charging for primary services such as investigative tests as India attempts to provide universal health coverage to all its citizens. “No fee of any kind would be levied on primary healthcare services with the prime source of financing being from general taxation/public exchequer,” the Planning Commission says in its latest health...

-The Hindu Legislative Assembly panel gives clean chit for transfer of Rogda reservoir land to private power company While there is an outcry in Maharashtra over disappearing irrigation water, in Chhattisgarh, an entire reservoir — the lifeline of four villages — has vanished. The 131-acre rain-fed reservoir has been leased out by the government to a private power company. However, an Assembly committee, recently constituted to investigate the ‘transfer’ of the reservoir, in...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI/ NAGPUR: Grave questions have surfaced over the source of funds for Purti Power and Sugar Ltd, controlled by BJP president Nitin Gadkari. Investigations reveal significant investments and large loans to Purti by a construction firm, Ideal Road Builders (IRB) Group, which had won contracts between 1995 and 1999, when Gadkari was the PWD minister in Maharashtra. Besides IRB Group, the other significant shareholders in Purti are...

-The Times of India Rising food prices during 2010-11 may have pushed three million Bangladeshis into poverty, and kept eight million Indians from getting out of poverty bracket, finds a UN report released on Thursday. In Asia and Pacific region, food inflation pushed nearly four million people into poverty. The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific ( ESCAP) report on regional cooperation for inclusive and sustainable development says...

-The Hindu Government, oil companies to work out modalities THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Cabinet on Wednesday decided to provide subsidy for up to nine cylinders of cooking gas (LPG) a year to all domestic consumers. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy told the media here after the weekly Cabinet meeting that the Centre was providing subsidy for six cylinders per household. The State government had earlier decided to extend the subsidy for nine cylinders to people living...