Interest rates on loans from microfinance institutions (MFIs) are likely to be capped at around 24 per cent. Currently, MFIs are charging 26-40 per cent on small loans extended to their rural customers — many of whom are yet to get even a bank account — while urban customers get personal loans at 12 per cent from commercial banks. Though neither the RBI nor the government has fixed any ceiling on...

As the 19th Commonwealth Games (CWG) ended here on Thursday, the Opposition parties on Friday raised the issue of “corruption” in organising the event and sought a thorough probe. They referred to the promises made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi that no one found involved in “corruption” would be spared after the Games were over. BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar told journalists, “I think the public-jury is out.”...

Last month, leaders from 185 countries met in New York to take stock of progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) — which include, among other things, eradicating poverty and hunger, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health — that were set in 2000 by the United Nations. The aim was to achieve these goals by 2015. But 10 years down the line, the world is way behind targets in achieving...

Commissioner of cane development and sugar director A K Monnappa regretted that the benefits of research in agriculture sector were not reaching the farmers adequately though there have been rise in research activities in recent years. Inaugurating the four-day training programme on improved cultivation of sugarcane and sugar beet for the cane development staff of sugar factories in north Karnataka held at the University of Agricultural Sciences in Dharwad on Tuesday,...

Uttar Pradesh is not a state readily associated with dynamic economic reform. But the state has taken giant strides in reforming one of the least reformed industries in India: the sugar industry. The country’s second largest sugar producing state after Maharashtra is undertaking an aggressive privatisation of its state-owned sugar mills. It has, just recently, successfully sold off 10 of the 11 operating units of the state’s Sugar Corporation to...