Plans are afoot to cap the number of subsidised LPG cylinders at six to eight per annum to reduce the losses of state-run oil firms and bring down the burgeoning subsidy bill. Oil ministry officials said consumers might have to pay more for every additional cylinder, and the amount would be gradually linked to market rates. Sources said the finance ministry had asked the oil ministry to revisit its proposal made last...

In Maharashtra’s drought-hit Satara district, a cattle camp has come to the rescue of women and their cattle, writes Sameena Dalwai. Mann taluka in Satara district is ground zero for the drought now ravaging interior Maharashtra. The only cattle camp in the vicinity, being run by the Mann Deshi Mahila Bank and Foundation, provides a snap distress. This region, known as ‘Manndesh’ in Marathi folklore, falls in the rain shadow area...

C Rangarajan, chairman of the PM's economic advisory council, on Friday hinted at price corrections in both diesel and cooking gas over the next few months to send a strong signal to foreign investors and to ensure adequate capital flows. "I think it is necessary to act on prices of other petroleum products also," he told TOI. Rangarajan, a former RBI governor, said there was a proposal on dual pricing...

-The Economic Times Open-ended consumption subsidies on petroleum products have wrought havoc on government finances. Reportedly, the trio of public sector oil marketing companies have of late blocked some 3.8 million parallel household connections of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), in a bid to rationalise the subsidy outgo. The move to weed out multiple LPG connections does make sense. But we need to keep the big picture in mind and overhaul the pricing and...

-The Hindu Costing Rs.37, 000 with DRDA grant of Rs.9, 000 The first ‘zero waste toilet system' (ZWTS) in the country was inaugurated at Evoor village near Musiri on Thursday by Collector Jayashree Muralidharan. This is an integrated urine diversion biogas linked flush toilet system and has five modules-a flush out toilet, a bathroom, a urine diversion bowl, a cultivated wetland for treating bathroom water, and a biogas plant. The Collector said that the...