-The Hindu Business Line Mumbai: The newly-launched Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) will bring about 50 per cent of India’s farmers in the crop insurance net and help reduce the prevailing distress in the agriculture sector, according to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. PMFBY is distinct from all earlier schemes in the sense that it not only takes the number of insured farmers to a higher level (from 20 per cent earlier...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Vice-President Hamid Ansari today cited "erroneous" media reports to warn that such coverage could erode the media's credibility and impair civil liberties but did not refer to the JNU controversy by name. Ansari, who is also the Rajya Sabha Chair, was addressing a Seminar on the "Role of Editors in Today's Media", organised by Rajya Sabha TV. He conceded the importance of speedy coverage in an age of 24x7...

-The Tribune New Delhi: Top editors today engaged in an eclectic dialogue on the ills of Indian journalism after Vice-President Hamid Ansari listed their challenges in the times of “24X7 agitation of television news channels”. Addressing a Seminar on the “Role of Editors in Today’s Media”, a Rajya Sabha TV initiative, Ansari lamented the decline of media ethics, recalling recent instances of some TV channels airing concocted content at the peak of...

-The Hindu Business Line MFIs are unable to address the needs of self-help groups. They have been hit by the falling growth of SHGs There has been a long-standing debate on the ability and effectiveness of the formal banking system as a vehicle for financial inclusion. The thrust has been to increase the number of small banks, as they play a very important role in the supply of credit to small business...

-Hindustan Times Ludhiana: Punjab finance minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa may have announced several perks for the agriculture sector, including provident funds for farmers, financial relief to families in which farmers committed suicides and medical insurance as part of the Budget 2016-17 for the state but several agricultural experts and farmers have pointed out all perks are futile without crop insurance. They stressed that if crop of farmers are not insured by the...