-The Economic Times New Delhi: The government has come out with a draft model contract farming act, which industry insiders said will protect farmers from price risks and encourage food processing companies to invest more in infrastructure and farming technology once states adopt it. The agriculture ministry has put up the model act on its website for various stakeholders, including contract farming and value chain promoting companies, producers' organisations and farmers, to...

-IANS So far 77 Smart Cities, including 11 of the Round 3 cities, had formed their Special Purpose Vehicle New Delhi: An investment of Rs 1,91,155 crore has been proposed for the 90 cities under the Smart Cities project, Urban Development Minister Hardeep Puri said on Monday, a day after Congress President Rahul Gandhi said only seven per cent of funds for the project had been used. An official statement issued on Monday...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The National Human Rights Commission has called the Uttar Pradesh police "an organised gang of criminals", quoting a half-century-old Allahabad High Court observation, while hearing charges of wrongful detention, sexual assault, false implication and cover-up against the cops. "There is not a single lawless group in the whole of the country whose record of crime comes anywhere near the record of that single organised unit which is known...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The National Human Rights Commission has sent a notice to the Maharashtra government following media reports that its education department has decided to close down zila parishad schools with fewer than 10 students and shift them to nearby institutes. The NHRC, in a recent directive, gave the state government four weeks to submit a detailed report. It said the decision, likely to affect about 1,300 schools, according to the...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A company that has been in operation for less than three years will be able to donate money to a political party through electoral bonds, according to the terms finalised by the Centre on Tuesday. But a party that could not secure 1 per cent of the vote in the previous election will not be eligible for the electoral bonds. This could pose a funding challenge for new...