-India Water Portal How paddy grew in popularity in Punjab and continues to steal the show, thanks to lack of alternatives for farmers. Take the roads of Punjab during the monsoon and you will find most fields turned into pools of water. It’s mainly the water pulled out from the underground vault to support the kharif crop of paddy. Neither a native plant nor suited to the agro-climatic region, paddy has...
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Government says Rs 21,000 crore saved in LPG subsidy under DBT scheme
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government on Wednesday said that close to Rs 21,000 crore was saved in two years by directly transferring subsidy (DBT) to user bank accounts. The savings are largely from the elimination of fake/ghost/duplicate/inactive domestic LPG connections. Over 3.34 crore of these connections were done away with after the implementation of DBT. According to government calculations, 3.34 crore blocked consumers would have used up Rs 14,818.4...
More »CAG audit nails Centre’s claim on LPG subsidy saving -Josy Joseph and TCA Sharad Raghavan
-The Hindu The audit has also found substantial systemic problems with the Direct Benefit Transfer in LPG scheme, called Pahal by the government. The Centre claims it would end up saving almost Rs. 22,000 crore in the financial years of 2014-15 and 2015-16 since launching its two-pronged approach on cooking gas subsidy — introducing direct bank transfers of the subsidy and asking better off consumers to voluntarily give up theirs. However, a CAG...
More »Oxford's Joshi proposes basic income for all -Ishan Bakshi
-Business Standard This policy involves providing products and services such as electricity and fertilisers at below-market prices New Delhi: While much of public discourse in India has tended to focus on expanding the current subsidy regime to help the poor, Vijay Joshi, economist at Oxford University, advocates shifting to a universal basic income, replacing all government subsidies with a single cash transfer to all citizens, providing them with a basic income guarantee. At...
More »Pulses and cereals are key worries in inflation -Ishan Kumar Bakshi & Indivjal Dhasmana
-Business Standard The latest bout of retail inflation was caused by vegetables, but prices of these items are not as worrisome as those of pulses The latest bout of Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation was caused by vegetables, but prices of these items are not as worrisome as those of pulses, which saw a slight moderation in June. Besides, inflation in cereals has been rising modestly, but if not checked this could...
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