The World Bank has approved $1 billion as credit and loan to support India's efforts to clean up the Ganga river. The sprawling river basin accounts for a fourth of the country's water resources and is home to more than 400 million people. The $1.556 billion National Ganga River Basin Project with $1 billion in financing from the World Bank group, including $199 million interest-free credit and $801 million low-interest loan, was...
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Centre cuts down MGNREGS grants to State by Prakash Kugve
The Centre has decided to cut down the grants to the State under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). It has also asked the State government to follow certain instructions with regard to the effective implementation of the scheme. The State will be receiving Rs 1,972.97 crore for 2011-12, as against Rs 2,107.93 crore last year. The State had asked the chief Executive officers of the Zilla Panchayats to...
More »Who’s afraid of the Lokpal Bill? by Jagdeep S Chhokar
The proposed Jan Lokpal Bill has evoked strong reactions, a number of them emotionally charged. One is struck by the conflicting claims and counter-claims in the media. While it’s hard to determine the truth in such matters, a summary of some of the misgivings and the possible intentions, with an assessment of what possibly is the reality, follows: *The Lokpal is being dubbed as a Leviathan Fear: Being a much too powerful...
More »RDM proposes more equitable deal for landowners; realtors may have to share 80% profits by Devika Banerji & Ravi Teja Sharma
The rural development ministry has proposed that farmers should get 80% of the profits from resale of land bought from them for development, much higher than that suggested by a Sonia Gandhi-led panel. The National Advisory Council had pegged the compensation after resale at 25% of the profits made by private developers. The proposal, aimed at giving farmland owners a better deal, follows protests in Uttar Pradesh's Greater Noida last month over...
More »Oxfam launches campaignfor hunger-free world by Madhur Tankha
Oxfam, an international confederation of 15 human rights organisations fighting poverty and injustice, launched a new campaign here on Wednesday for a hunger-free world even as it announced that the number of hungry people the world over has crossed the billion mark and one in four of the world's hungry people live in India. Despite doubling the size of its economy between 1990 and 2005, the number of people in India...
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