The 2012-13 Budget may not have to provide as big a jump in the food subsidy bill as expected earlier. This is because of a series of measures initiated by the government to cut wastage and improve efficiency, food minister KV Thomas has said. The measures that would bring down the need for funds include the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) and the setting up of modern grain storage facilities, which...
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Jairam Ramesh, Minister for Rural Development interviewed by Anil Padmanabhan & Elizabeth Roche
As minister for rural development, Jairam Ramesh oversees the largest spending in the social sector by the government. This includes the marquee Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) that was pioneered by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance in 2006. The minister, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is known for his forthrightness. In a typically candid interview to Mint on...
More »India’s Air the World’s Unhealthiest, Study Says by Heather Timmons and Malavika Vyawahare
India has the worst air pollution in the entire world, beating China, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh, according to a study released during this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos. Of 132 countries whose environments were surveyed, India ranks dead last in the ‘Air (effects on human health)’ ranking. The annual study, the Environmental Performance Index, is conducted and written by environmental research centers at Yale and Columbia universities with assistance from...
More »Small Indian hill state aims to improve agricultural livelihoods with UN loan
-The United Nations India is receiving a loan of nearly $90 million from the United Nations to improve agricultural livelihoods in the small north-western state of Uttarakhand, one of the poorest areas in the country. The money, resulting from an agreement signed today between the Government and the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), will go towards the Integrated Livelihoods Support Project, which aims to support and develop the food production...
More »Corruption in NREGA cannot be ignored: Sonia Gandhi
-The Indian Express Pitching for immediate reforms in the Centre's flagship rural job scheme MGNREGA, Congress President Sonia Gandhi today said the complaints of corruption and irregularities regarding the scheme cannot be ignored. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Gandhi also expressed concern over the delay in wage payment to MGNREGA workers, emphasising the need to ensure that they get it within 15 days. "Talks about reform in MGNREGA have been on for quite...
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