-The Economic Times The government must decontrol sugar, lift curbs on trade in molasses and allow proper markets to function in this sector. Ill-informed would-be saviours of farmers like Gen V K Singh oppose the move. They only serve to fatten liquor barons like the late Ponty Chadha and depress farm incomes. As an article by Nidhi Nath Srinivas (ET, November 22) points out, wily politicians use control to make the sugar...
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From plastic portable loos to Sanitary Bonds, India needs a latrine policy-V Raghunathan
-The Economic Times After Mahatma Gandhi, Jairam Ramesh is the only national leader to be genuinely concerned that 65 years after Independence, some 600 million Indians in the 21st century continue to use open skies as their latrines. While Lee Kuan Yew continues to exhort Singaporeans to have cleaner loos, our ministry of railways thinks depositing human excreta all along the country's length and breadth, including deep into the cities -...
More »Behind Haryana land boom, the Midas touch of Hooda -Shalini Singh
-The Hindu Robert Vadra may be the most talked about property developer in Haryana but the emergence of links between the man who sold Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law his first plot of land and Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda has shone a spotlight on the crucial role played by the Congress-run government in turning realty in the State into a business worth thousands of crores of rupees. Records of all licences granted...
More »Government plans Rs.40,000 crore fund for rural development
-IANS The government is planning to set up a Rs.40,000-crore flexi-fund to help states address specific rural development needs. The fund will be available to states from the next financial year till the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan in March 2017. The central government will have a 70 per cent share in the fund. "For the first time, we are putting together a flexi-fund of Rs.40,000 crore that will be available to...
More »Politics aside, is Gujarat a great growth story?-Bibek Debroy
-The Economic Times A new book by Bibek Debroy on Gujarat looks at how this much-talked about state has performed in economic terms. The author argues history, luck and administrative clarity have been the determining factors. There has been a discernible pickup in Gujarat's growth performance since the 10th Plan (2002-07), the five-year Plans being natural periods for breaking up the timeline. It's tempting to argue that there is nothing exceptional in...
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