-The Economic Times The government is likely to miserably fall short of its rural electrification target for the current fiscal as most villages that were to be covered under the scheme are located in difficult terrains, making it difficult for the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) to lay power lines there. Officials from Rural Electrification Corporation, the nodal agency for implementing the scheme, say many of the villages that were to be supplied...

-The Times of India The Forest Advisory Committee (FAC), under the ministry of forests and environment, has scheduled yet another meeting on Friday for clearing projects in violation of the Central Information Commission (CIC) orders. Earlier, the commission had pulled up environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan for a similar transgression. In February, the CIC had demanded that the ministry must share with public the details of projects to be cleared ahead of the...

-The Hindu Cyber crimes that are grave in nature will now attract detention under the Goondas Act. Winding up a conference of senior IAS/IPS officers here on Wednesday, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa announced that suitable amendments would be made to include cyber crime under the Tamil Nadu Prevention of Dangerous Activities of Bootleggers, Drug Offenders, Forest Offenders, Goondas, Immoral Traffic Offenders, Sand Offenders, Slum Grabbers and Video Pirates Act, 1982. Departing from the principle...

-The Times of India The West Bengal government has managed a turnaround in revenue collection, thanks to innovative use of technology and the impending need to raise resources and repair the state's tattered finances. Data shows tax receipts during the first quarter of 2012-13 have risen 35%. In 2010-11, before the Trinamool Congress-led government came to power, tax collection by the Left Front government stood at Rs 21,000 crore, while in 2012-13...

-The Indian Express With less than a fortnight left to roll out its direct cash transfer scheme, the government is trying to fast-track the process of identification and registration of beneficiaries for the 34 schemes. Accordingly, it has decided to set up camps in each of the 43 districts where direct cash transfers would be launched for preparing a central database of beneficiaries, enrollment for Aadhaar numbers and opening of bank accounts. “A...