-The Indian Express   Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today announced Rs 1,00,000 crore increase in the agriculture credit target to Rs 5,75,000 for the next fiscal and raised the outlay for farm sector by about Rs 3,000 crore. "Agriculture continues to be a priority to the government. The total plan outlay for agriculture and cooperation has been increased by 18 per cent from Rs 17,123 crore in 2011-12 to Rs 20,208 crore in...

Sounding a note of caution, the Economic Survey has stressed that for “growth to be inclusive” India must create adequate employment opportunities—a call that underlines existing inequality, including urban-rural income disparity, and concern that it may increase as more young people enter the job market. While India’s unemployment rate has dropped from 8.2% in 2004-05 to 6.6% in 2009-10, the number of jobless is still huge in absolute terms. The...

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee ushered in a regime of cash transfers for the payment of subsidies for food, fertilizers and kerosene, along with social welfare payments, by accepting the recommendations of a panel headed by Nandan Nilekani, chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India. The recommendations, submitted last month, had prepared a blueprint for transferring cash directly into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries by linking these to their unique...

It’s a two-storey palatial structure of deep pink sandstone, with granite floors and a massive dome. It’s coming up at 9 Mall Avenue in Lucknow — outgoing chief minister Mayawati’s latest acquisition of prime real estate in the city. It is fenced by high pink sandstone walls, with four watch towers manned by security personnel at the corners. Barricades on the road in front kept out the curious crowds who went...

India's use of the compulsory licensing provision under its patents law for the first time to make the patented cancer drug Nexavar available at affordable prices is an essential, although belated step to curb the mounting cost of drugs. The grant of the licence by the Controller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks to Natco Pharma for manufacture of the drug Sorafenib Tosylate (Nexavar) to treat liver and kidney cancer is...