-The Hindu Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala): The government is considering a proposal to exempt stamp duty on agricultural loans issued by commercial banks. Finance Minister K.M. Mani told a meeting of the State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) here on Monday that a decision on the issue would be taken soon after assessing the financial implications. Pointing to the substantial share of commercial banks in primary sector credit, the last meeting of the SLBC had...

-The Business Standard Policymaking in India is more often than not credited for its high nuisance value, rather than for positively aiding growth. Whether oil & gas, power, mining or any other core sector of the economy, government policy has frequently hampered rather than assisted the positive development of these industries. There is however one segment of the renewable energy space - solar power, that's vastly benefitted from concerted government action...

-The Hindu     National Solar Mission instrumental in bringing down cost of power The Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission Phase-1 (JNNSM) is poised to make India a global leader in the development of solar power as its green growth agenda increased the installed capacity from around 30 MW to more than 2,000 MW, a World Bank report said on Thursday. What is significant is that JNNSM has been instrumental in bringing down the cost...

-The Hindu     To be able to deliver appropriate legal services to the rural and tribal communities, we need an alternative delivery system with a different model of legal service providers Delivery of legal services to the rich and the corporate class is organised not through individual lawyers but through a series of networked law firms. These firms employ hundreds of lawyers and domain experts all over the country to provide highly specialised...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The United Progressive Alliance government has drawn up a Rs 75,000-crore action plan that seeks to provide self-employment opportunities to seven crore households in rural India over the next 10 years. The programme, which intends to impart training to rural households for semi-skilled and skilled jobs, may help UPA garner some extra votes in the general elections due next year. "The model has already been tested in...