To maintain projects to clean the river and restore its environmental health Centre to consider Uttarakhand's demand for free power in compensation for scrapped projects Conservation Action Plan approved for Gangetic dolphin, the national aquatic animal States through which the Ganga flows will soon be given additional funding to operate and maintain projects to clean the river and restore its environmental health. However, States lobbied for more Aid and free power to those...

The centre has asked the states to strengthen their public distribution systems (PDS) to minimise the impact of high inflation on the poor, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee sAid here Monday. 'The central government has requested the states to strengthen their public distribution systems to ensure that the vulnerable groups of the society are not adversely affected by the current level of inflation,' Mukherjee sAid at the second annual conference of finance...

Never mind wishful thinking by the government and RBI. Food will never be cheaper than what it is today. Not this year. Or in future. The reason is simple. Growing food in India has become extremely expensive. Crops are pricier even before they reach the market and face the pulls and tugs of rising local demand and exports. The farmer’s single biggest cost now is labour. Farm labour wages have doubled...

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has sought direct and immediate intervention of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to offer relaxations in the specifications of paddy for its procurement by the Food Corporation of India and state agencies. The CM sAid a failure to take immediate corrective and remedial action could lead to serious law and order problem in the days to come. Badal has also written to Union Agriculture Minister Sharad...

In a bid to build up pressure before the meeting of the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) to decide the fate of Posco’s mega steel plant in Orissa, those opposed to it stepped up the momentum. Project opponents, led by Posco Pratirodha Sangram Samiti (PPSS), the organization spearheading the agitation against the South Korean company, held a massive rally and protest meeting yesterday at Balitutha, entry point to the project site. People...