-Live Mint In the two years to March 2012, the number of kisan credit cards grew by 28%, while the outstanding amount grew by 76% So far, the rural job-guarantee scheme, other social programmes by state governments and the raising of minimum support prices to farmers have been cited as reasons for the continued buoyancy in rural consumption and also for inflation in food items. But there could be another insidious...

-Bloomberg The corpse of Indian farmer Bengali Singh burned to ash atop a blazing funeral pyre on the banks of the river Ganges in 2006. Five years later, the dead man was recorded as being paid by India's $33 billion rural jobs program to dig an irrigation canal in Jharkhand state. Officials in his village and the surrounding region used at least 500 identities, including those of Singh, a disabled child of...

-PTI State tweaked rules to grant land to Ford and L&T, says report The Comptroller and Auditor-General of India has come down heavily on the Gujarat government and State public sector undertakings for causing a loss of nearly Rs. 580 crore to the exchequer by bestowing "undue" favours on large corporate entities. Major industrial houses to which the Narendra Modi government played benefactor included Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), Essar Steel and Adani Power...

-Live Mint Subsidized loans given to farmers through KCCs could very well be the next big source of NPAs for banks Mumbai: A surge in exposure to farm debt through Kisan Credit Cards (KCCs) could emerge as a risk for India's state-run banks, according to experts. Subsidized loans are given to farmers through KCCs by state-owned banks. Until March 2012, the outstanding amount on such loans was`1.6 trillion through 20.3 million cards, as...

-The Business Standard CAG says GSPL did not safeguard its own interest leading to passing on of undue benefit of Rs 52 cr to RIL In what could add more teeth to the opposition party's allegations against the Narendra Modi-led Gujarat government, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG)'s latest report has brought out fresh details of undue favour by state public sector undertakings (PSUs) to Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and...