-The Hindu Cabinet announces relief, rules out MSP HUBBALLI (Karnataka): The State Cabinet on Wednesday ruled out the possibility of a minimum support price (MSP) for onion while announcing a compensation of Rs. 9,000 a hectare for crops damaged due to rains in Chitradurga, Davangere, Gadag, Dharwad and Bellary districts. This has come on the heels of growers protesting crashing prices of their produce. A macro view of market scenario shows that fluctuations...

-The Hindu The Union government has also decided to resume providing subsidy on cooking gas through direct cash transfers straight into consumers' bank accounts. The Modi government has frozen the budget subsidy for cooking gas at Rs. 20 a kg. This will not mean any increase in price for the consumer right away. However, if international prices were to rise, as they normally do in winter, then the government will be faced with...

-The Hindu Governor underlines need to create job opportunities Dehradun (Uttarakhand): After issues related to rebuilding the State in the wake of the June 2013 natural calamity, MIGration from villages due to lack of development has emerged as a major concern. Chief Minister Harish Rawat, speaking at a function to mark the 14th foundation day on Sunday, said people were MIGrating in search of work, leaving in their wake "ghost villages." Endorsing this view,...

-The Hindu ‘MIGrant Workmen Act, 1979, often ignored' Chennai: In a bid to keep track of the workforce from other States in the city, the Chennai police have decided to create a database of MIGrant labourers. On Saturday, a meeting was held between the police and members of Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (CREDAI), builders and labour department officials at the Commissionerate. "Deputy commissioners will be the nodal officers to collect...

-The Times of India Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya, hereafter BP, have argued for phasing out the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in favour of cash transfers ("Rural Inefficiency Act", ToI, 23 October). It's surprising-and amusing-that two eminent economists have chosen to make a case based on prior beliefs and some sophomoric wordplay ('mis'leading economists), rather than on the available evidence. A survey by one of us of the empirical literature...