-PTI Aadhaar number will be required for one-time registration at the IRCTC ticketing SITe. The railways will soon move towards Aadhaar-based online ticketing system to prevent touts from blocking bulk tickets, end fraudulent bookings and curb cases of impersonation. Aadhaar number has been made mandatory for senior citizens to avail concessions in train tickets from April 1. A three-month trial run for this is going on. As per the new business plan 2017-18, unveiled...

-Down to Earth Women farmers, whose contribution to agriculture is equal or sometimes even more than their husbands, are often ignored A study conducted in rural Tamil Nadu points out the appalling condition of women farmers, especially after the death of their husbands. Conducted in January by the Tamilnadu Federation for Women Farmers’ Rights in 13 villages across six state districts, the study reveals that a famine-like SITuation due to poor monsoon...

-Business Standard Data presents a rosy picture but fails to convince New Delhi: For anyone who understand, or at least deludes himself to believe that they understand, how the economy works, the latest data by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) on the quarterly gross domestic product (GDP) should come as a shock. Ever since the Prime Minister stunned the nation by announcing demonetisation on November 8 last year, economists of all hue...

-The Times of India CHANDIGARH: Punjab has been exporting its underground water (to the rest of India) in the form of rice. This strong statement has come from one of Punjab's respected economists R S Ghuman in his study titled 'Water Use Scenario in Punjab beyond the Sutlej-Yamuna Link Canal'. The study was published in 'Economic & Political Weekly' journal in its January edition and some of its observations are crucial at...

-The Financial Express Despite the substantial increase in agricultural credit in the past few years, a few states such as Tamil Nadu, Punjab and (pre-division) Andhra Pradesh continue to corner a large part of it, while most poor farmers in Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Bihar are still deprived of credit for purchase of basic farming inputs. This scenario has undermined the efficacy of the stepped-up farm credit in boosting agricultural productivity. And...