-Down to Earth Grand old party of India renews some old promises and makes some new ones, but will Congress live up to its promises if it wins a third term? The Indian National Congress (INC) presented its manifesto for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections on Wedneday. The manifesto committee claimed the 48-page document was prepared after wide consultations by engaging millions of people, grassroots congress workers and every section of the...
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Rs 30,000 crore stimulus to economy expected from poll spending -Surojit Gupta
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The country's faltering economy is likely to get a significant stimulus from election spending by political parties, candidates and the government which estimates suggest could be as much as Rs 30,000 crore. The figure is comparable to the $4 billion (around Rs 20,000 crore at the prevailing exchange rate) additional spending that the government announced in 2008 to shield the economy from the impact of the...
More »Agricultural Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme (ADWDRS), 2008
-Press Information Bureau (Ministry of Finance) Loan waiver to farmers was provided by the Central Government under Agricultural Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme (ADWDRS), 2008. Under the scheme, direct agricultural loans disbursed by Scheduled Commercial Banks, Local Area Banks, Cooperative Credit Institutions and Regional Rural Banks between 1st April, 1997 to 31st March, 2007 to farmers, which were overdue as on 31st December, 2007 and remained unpaid upto 29th February, 2008...
More »Whose loo? Why 600 million Indians still defecate in the open-Ierene Francis
-TheAlternative.in Over 600 million Indians have no access to toilets - if you line up the countries where open defecation is practised, India leads and also has more than twice the number as the next 18 countries with no access to toilets. The proportion is worse in rural India - where 68% of rural households don't have their own toilets (Source:NSSO, WHO). Why is open defecation an issue? Open defecation has been linked...
More »Lokpal may become a parking lot for retired babus -Himanshi Dhawan
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Will the Lokpal become just another retirement home for ex-bureaucrats? Government rules say only serving and retired secretary-level officers to the government of India and their equivalent can become non-judicial members, ensuring that the fledgling Lokpal goes the way of the Central Information Commission and power and telecom regulators like CERC and Trai. Describing this as "unfortunate" and "illegitimate", activists under the aegis of the National...
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