-The Hindu Parliamentary Standing Committee says only 10% of projects complete. Irrigation projects of the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY) may have taken the spotlight in the Prime Minister’s speech during Friday’s no-confidence motion debate in the Lok Sabha. However, a less well-known but vital component of that scheme is watershed development, which is lagging behind badly, according to a Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) report. When the report was first tabled last...
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The People of India Have Protected Their Right to Information Once Again -M Sridhar Acharyulu
-TheWire.in The Centre's decision to defer the Right to Information (Amendment) Bill 2018 – after protests from the public and the opposition – is temporary good news. Sub-section (5) of Section 13 of the Right to Information Act provided that the salaries and allowance and other terms and conditions of service of the chief information commissioner and information commissioners shall be same as that of the chief election commissioner and election commissioners,...
More »Ramesh Chand, member, NITI Aayog, interviewed by Seetha (Firstpost.com)
-Firstpost.com The recent increases in minimum support prices have attracted two criticisms from two opposite sides. One is that this is less than what farmers deserve, the second is that this is populist and ignores larger macro side effects. The increase in fair remunerative price for sugarcane has also been criticised for not adequately addressing the woes of the sugar sector. Ramesh Chand, member, agriculture, NITI Aayog talks to Firstpost on...
More »Are loan waivers the only way to help farmers? -Sanjay Kaul
-The Hindu Business Line The trend of farm loan waivers has gripped the country and Karnataka is the latest to jump on to the bandwagon. The fiscal strain of farm loan waivers on the States is worrisome. As per RBI, the gross fiscal deficit (GFD) of States rose to 3.1 per cent of GDP in 2017-18, breaching the threshold of 3 per cent GFD/GSDP ratio recommended by the Finance Commission. This threshold has...
More »New EPF enrolment during Sep., 2017 to Apr., 2018 confined to a few industries & States, indicates data
A document of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) dated 25th June, 2018 says that the number of members subscribing to the Employees' Provident Fund (EPF) scheme gives one an idea of the level of employment in the formal sector viz. mostly employment in establishments employing 20 or more persons (though EPF is applicable for certain organisations, which employ less than 20 persons, subject to certain conditions and...
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