-Deccan Herald With just a little more than a year left before the nation goes to polls, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Government has proposed to raise the allocation for rural development to Rs 80194 crore in 2013-14, although an amount of about Rs 21371 crore is estimated to be left unspent from the fund earmarked for the sector this year. The Ministry of Rural Development is likely to leave unutilized...

-Frontline The Land Acquisition Bill runs into a roadblock as political parties fail to reach an agreement on the substantive features of the draft Bill or on the amendments proposed. The efforts of the United Progressive Alliance government to broker a consensus on the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2012, which has been pending for over a year, have not paid off not because...

-Live Mint HRD minister says government will push for the fulfilment of RTE's conditions even after deadline ends A week before the implementation deadline for its flagship Right to Education (RTE) Act expires, the government on Friday accepted that it had failed to achieve many of the targets of what it envisaged as a landmark measure. At least 13 states have written to the human resource development (HRD) ministry for an extension owing...

-Live Mint Attempt to broad-base direct benefits transfer plan may help shore up the Congress’s standing among rural population The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government plans to include its flagship rural job guarantee programme in the second phase of its ambitious direct benefits transfer (DBT) plan, under which beneficiaries of social welfare programmes will receive money directly in their Aadhaar-linked bank accounts. The attempt to broad-base the cash transfer plan before several...

-The Hindu Promises a law soon to curb crime against women Gohana: United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Friday used the opportunity of inauguration of the first women’s Government Medical College of independent India at Khanpur Kalan here on the occasion of International Women’s Day to reiterate the need to take concrete steps to curb crimes against women and promised a law in this regard soon. Without making a direct reference to...