-Firstpost.com Gaighata (North 24 Parganas): West Bengal accounts for 1.04 crore out of India’s 1.48 crore population harmed by arsenic. At present, 20 percent of the state’s population is vulnerable to arsenic-related ailments like skin cancer, and heart and lung diseases. Out of 12 affected districts in West Bengal, the most seriously affected areas are in North 24-Parganas (21 blocks), South 24-Parganas (12 blocks), Nadia (17 blocks), Hooghly (21 blocks), Malda...

  Growth in rural wages not only indicates economic prosperity of the masses, it is also considered important so as to generate effective demand for goods and services, which is produced by various sectors of the economy. When money becomes available in the hands of rural workers due to government spending on programmes such as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), it generates demand for commodities. The production of commodities...

-The Indian Express Launched on September 23, PMJAY is the tertiary care arm of the NDA government’s flagship health programme Ayushman Bharat. On the day Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee released the party’s manifesto with a focus on national issues such as demonetisation, Kashmir and GST, the state government returned the money received from the Centre for the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY), touted as...

-Frontline.in The cash transfer schemes the Narendra Modi government and several State governments have announced to woo the peasantry ahead of the election, like the loan waivers, short-change farmers because they avoid the vital issue of remunerative prices for farm produce. In a sudden flurry of new-found concern for the long-suffering Indian peasant, parties across the political spectrum are desperately trying to woo this section of society. In fact, ever since...

-PTI New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday regretted that non-BJP ruled States, including West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh, have not certified even a single farmer for transfer of the first instalment of Rs.2,000 under the PM-KISAN scheme. In the interim Budget 2019-20, the Central government had announced the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme under which Rs.6,000 per year will be given in three instalments to 12 crore small...