-The Indian Express After petrol and diesel, the Narendra Modi government is looking next to deregulate urea. In the works is a three-year plan to decontrol the maximum retail price (MRP) of this fertiliser - currently fixed at Rs 5,360 a tonne or Rs 268 per 50-kg bag - alongside permitting duty-free imports sans any canalisation or restrictions, and credit the subsidy directly into the bank accounts of farmers. Urea imports now...

-The Times of India MUMBAI: The Modi government's squeeze on the UPA's flagship MNREGA scheme is translating into dramatic fund cuts for Maharashtra, which has a BJP government. Compared to the last financial year till December, central funds to the rural job scheme have almost halved, data with the state government reveals. The MNREGA-among the largest job-creation programmes in the world-provides a social safety net for the rural poor. Under the scheme,...

-The Telegraph Ranchi: A centre on the lines of Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), Pusa, New Delhi, gifted to Jharkhand by the Modi government in its first budget in July 2014, is yet to sprout from state agriculture department's drawing board. In his maiden budget speech, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley allocated Rs 100 crore this fiscal for both Jharkhand and Assam for two agriculture centres in each of these states. But why...

-The Indian Express Mumbai: Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Friday that his government won't cut subsidies for the poor, it has now come to light that the BJP-Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra has already silently discontinued the food subsidy for nearly 2 crore people in the state. According to sources, the Devendra Fadnavis government has decided to discontinue supply of subsidised food grains to 1.77 crore people who were...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Prime Minister NarendraModi on Friday vowed to push through change at a fast pace but said subsidies should be continued to protect the interests of the poor. Addressing the Economic Times Global Business Summit, the PM struck an optimistic note to say, "The New Age India has begun its transition, from a winter of subdued achievement lasting three to five years, to a new spring that...