-Business Standard Govt should revamp agricultural marketing to increase farmers' earnings and amend land-leasing laws Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has met farm sector representatives for pre-Budget consultations at a time Indian agriculture is passing through a bad patch - especially because of two years of consecutive drought. Predictably, therefore, most participants pitched for more credit on soft terms, higher minimum support prices (MSP) for crops and the expansion of irrigation facilities to...

-The Indian Express Also seek higher allocation for Price Stabilisation Fund in a pre-Budget meet Farmers’ organisations, food and fertiliser companies and agriculture experts on Monday urged finance minister Arun Jaitely to ensure that farmers get  remunerative prices for their produce and make sufficient Budget outlay to create  irrigation facilities in the remaining rain-fed areas. They also sought increase in the outlay for expanding the number of agriculture market yards and higher allocation...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Muslims have the lowest share of working people - about 33% - among all religious communities in India. This is lower than the nationwide average work participation rate of 40%. The figure for Jains and Sikhs stands at 36% each. Buddhists, comprising mostly Dalits who embraced Buddhism in the 20th century, have a high working population share at 43%. For Hindus, the figure is 41%. Drawn...

-The Hindu Business Line The proposed crop insurance overhaul is a welcome step The Centre’s move to come out with a new crop insurance policy has not come a moment too soon. The initiative seems keen to address two main impediments to enhance the coverage of crop insurance — high rates of premium under the Modified National Agriculture Insurance Scheme (MNAIS), particularly in relation to the sum insured, and inaccuracies in estimating...

-PTI New Delhi: Direct transfer of kerosene subsidy to the bank accounts of users will help in better targeting of the benefits to those who actually deserve it, the Finance Ministry said today. The government had last night said it will roll out the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) scheme for kerosene from April 1 where the users will buy the cooking fuel at market rate but will get financial support directly in...