-PTI New delhi: Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Thursday remained non-committal on cutting excise duty on petrol and diesel, which have touched record highs, saying merely that the government is keeping a close watch on the situation. Petrol price rose to ?71.56 per litre in delhi on Thursday, the highest since August 2014. Rates in Mumbai are almost touching ?80. Diesel prices soared to their highest level of ?62.25 per litre in delhi....

-The Telegraph New delhi: The Centre's plan to install nearly a million solar-powered water pumps for irrigation in the next three years through a 30 per cent government subsidy appears fiscally unrealistic, energy researchers cautioned on Thursday and called for alternative financing strategies. The researchers with the New delhi-based Council on Energy Environment and Water (CEEW) have estimated that the 30 per cent subsidy on solar irrigation pumps would cost the government...

-The Hindu Business Line Lingering distress in the sector may force the govt to think innovatively New delhi: Agriculture sector, which suffered badly despite higher production in the last two years, may be a key focus area for the NDA government, when it presents its last full-fledged Union Budget before the 2019 general elections. Attending a function recently in the Capital, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley unequivocally said that that the farm sector...

-The Telegraph New delhi: The Union health ministry has asked its senior-most medical officer who oversees the implementation of the government's myriad health and family welfare programmes to go on leave and asked the second-in-command to take his position. In an order issued on Tuesday, the ministry asked Jagdish Prasad, the director-general of health services (DGHS), to "proceed on earned leave for 15 days... today afternoon" and assigned his charge to B.D....

-The Hindu ‘State exploiting personal rights of individuals’ New delhi: The Aadhaar scheme contradicts the role of the state as the custodian of the citizens’ fundamental right of privacy. A duty is cast on the government and its agencies to protect the citizen’s crucial personal data from commercial exploitation by private corporates, petitioners challenging the scheme submitted in the Supreme Court on Thursday. Referring to the nine-judge Bench judgment which upheld privacy as...