-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: Keeping his promise to focus on creating durable assets under the UPA's flagship rural employment guarantee programme, rural development minister Jairam Ramesh has made changes to the programme's guidelines. In a letter sent to all chief ministers, Ramesh announced a clarification to the operational guidelines of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, which would allow for use of funds to create durable assets. The clarification relates...

-The Business Standard Panel member questioned the choice of sub-components There is some consolation for Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi: Not everyone in a panel headed by Reserve Bank of India Governor and former chief economic advisor Raghuram Rajan had favoured the inclusion of Gujarat in the list of less developed states. Economist and social scientist Shaibal Gupta, a member of the panel, had dissented and...

-The Hindu The move to redefine 'handloom' is in the interest of powerloom operators who will be able to corner benefits meant for weavers "Any loom, other than powerloom; and includes any hybrid loom on which, at least one process for weaving requires manual intervention or human energy for production." (The new definition of handloom proposed by Ministry of Textiles) The textile industry in India comprises three sectors - the mill, the powerloom and...

-PTI According to Planning Commission estimates, 21.9% of the people live below the poverty line in 2011-12. The food security programme is not restricted to the poor and the population covered by it is about three times the number of people below the poverty line, Parliament was told today. 'The government has decided to cover 67 per cent of the population under Food Security Act. The proposed coverage is not restricted to the...

-Outlook New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said rural per capita consumption has increased four times faster than earlier due to enhanced economic prosperity in rural areas and BIMARU states have witnessed progress. "Many states which had been considered backward for a long time, with some of them being called BIMARU are now progressing," Singh said in his Independence Day address to the nation. The BIMARU states are four northern Indian states...