-The Business Standard   Demand-side control cannot be an answer beyond a point to India’s persistently high food price inflation, the World Bank said on Monday. Consumer price-based food inflation in India has been at 10-20 per cent for quite a long while, noted its report on ‘Food inflation in South Asia’. The Bank’s chief economist for the region, Kalpana Kochhar, said controlling inflation in India was a difficult job for the Reserve Bank...

National Infrastructure Equity Audit conducted in 125 gram panchayats in five States There is a continued prevalence of deep-rooted caste-based inequity in the contribution and availability of infrastructure and, hence, of the accessibility of services and entitlements, a report has suggested. The Scheduled Castes (SC), the Scheduled Tribes (ST) and minorities do not have access to functional infrastructure facilities as they are ‘merely situated in the general or backward classes habitations,' according...

In an attempt to extend the reach of banks in rural and semi-urban areas, the finance ministry has asked public sector banks to integrate their operations with regional rural banks (RRBs). "Charges for various banking services used by customers of RRBs are to be aligned with the sponsoring banks," a finance ministry official said on condition of anonymity. "Further, cheques or drafts issued by RRBs should be treated at par...

In a face-off between advertisers and news broadcasters over the issue of the periodicity of reporting television rating points, the former has opposed the broadcasters’ proposal to have TRPs of shows move from a weekly to a monthly format. The News Broadcasters Association (NBA) last week had issued a letter to TAM, the body that measures television viewership in India, asking it to consider the option of reporting TRPs of programmes...

Dr. Tishyarakshit Chatterjee, Secretary, Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF), recently underlined the need to design carbon markets to address the short-term needs of investors in manufacturing, save fossil fuels for the future and meet the compulsions of environmental probity, sustainability, entrepreneurship and innovation over a long period. Addressing the India Carbon Market Conclave 2011, organized jointly by FICCI and the MoEF, in partnership with The World Bank and the International...