The finance ministry is all set to increase the agriculture lending target by around 25% in the budget for 2012-13 despite a sharp increase in the non-performing loans in the sector. In the last budget, the government had increased the target to 4.75 lakh crore from 3.75 lakh crore in the year before. "Banks will continue to focus on all priority sector areas. This year more focus will be on direct lending...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Total Matching Records found : 2858
Dwindling Resources Trigger Global Land Rush by Stephen Leahy
A global scramble for land and mineral resources fuelled by billions of investment dollars is threatening the last remaining wilderness and critical ecosystems, destroying communities and contaminating huge volumes of fresh water, warned environmental groups in London Wednesday. No national park, delicate ecosystem or community is off limits in the voracious hunt for valuable metals, minerals and fossil fuels, said the Gaia Foundation’s report, "Opening Pandora's Box". The intensity of the...
More »Burdened with bumper crop by Sayantan Bera
Faulty procurement, rising farm inputs force West Bengal farmers to commit suicide LONG known as farmer friendly, West Bengal is now making headlines for farmers’ suicides. Reportedly 31 farmers, including landless farm labourers and small traders of agriculture produce, in the state took their lives between October last year and January. Twenty-one of the 31 deaths are from the state’s rice bowl Burdwan district. And this is probably a reason the spate...
More »Jairam makes NREGA more agriculture-focused by Nirendra Dev
In a landmark decision, the Union rural development minister, Mr Jairam Ramesh, today announced that the flagship scheme MG-NREGA would be made more agriculture focused. “At least 28 new work lists out of 30 suggested by the Planning Commission member Mihir Shah committee is agriculture based. We will have the major recommendations for NREGA-2 implemented from April 1, 2012,” Mr Ramesh told reporters after receiving the report from Mr Shah. He,...
More »Difficult to digest by Jyotika Sood
After much debate, the Cabinet cleared the food security bill. Will it really ensure food for every Indian? THE Lokpal Bill debate may have ended in a fiasco but 2011 ended on a positive note for the Congress-led UPA government on another count. Its pet project, the National Food Security Bill (NFSB), was cleared by the Union Cabinet and introduced in Parliament. The bill seeks to address widespread hunger in the...
More »
