-IANS The government is considering creating a corpus fund of Rs.1,000 crore ($18.7 million) in the current fiscal that would encourage banks to give housing loans in 'significant volumes' to the urban poor, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Tuesday. Addressing a conference on the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) here, Manmohan Singh said the corpus of Rs.1,000 would be set aside to create a credit risk guarantee fund that could...

-The Financial Express   The Cabinet is likely to consider the National Food Security Bill which envisages subsidised foodgrain as legal entitlement for two third of the country's population on Tuesday. Once the Cabinet approves the bill, the food ministry will table in parliament during the current season. As per the food bill, 75% of the rural households will get subsidised grain and at least’ 46% households would be considered as ‘priority’ category, and...

The building collapse in Uttam Nagar that killed four people last week has again exposed how the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) as well as the state government are mired in large-scale corruption. The major cause of the incident, in which four people were killed, was reportedly the flouting of construction norms by the builder. Officials from MCD told Tehelka on condition of anonymity that the number of illegal buildings goes...

-The Hindustan Times   After the news of the hospital fire in Kolkata broke on December 9, social media networks went into a frenzy. While some wanted the death sentence for the owners of the AMRI Hospitals where the disaster happened, others demanded answers from the state on why and how it failed to implement fire safety laws. One of the posts succinctly captured the Indian mindset responsible for such mishaps. The...

-The Business Standard   Orissa has voiced its opposition to the caps proposed in the targeted Public Distribution System (PDS) in the National Food Security (NFS) Bill-2011. The NFS Bill has proposed a cap of 75 per cent in rural areas and 50 per cent in Urban areas on the coverage under targeted PDS. The state Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, while welcoming the concept of food security, has objected to fixing limits on targeted...