The budget for the next fiscal is likely to step up the target for farm credit to 4,50,000 crore, up 20% from the current year's 3,75,000 crore. With the agriculture sector seen growing at 5.4% in the current fiscal, the government will push banks to disburse more to the sector to maintain the momentum, said a senior government official. The upheavel in the micro-finance sector will also necessitate greater lending by banks. "The...
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Coal in dense forest areas can be declared ‘strategic energy reserve': MoEF by Priscilla Jebaraj
Mining will hurt biodiversity and discourage development of coal technology If coal mining is allowed in heavily forested areas today, it could deprive the country of a strategic energy reserve for the future, according to the Environment Ministry. It would also go against the Forest Conservation Act, invite judicial intervention, hurt biodiversity and discourage the development of coal technology. These are among the arsenal of arguments unsheathed by the Ministry to counter...
More »Neoliberal illogic by Prabhat Patnaik
The class bias in government policy is clear in the decision to release a small amount of foodgrain in the open market to tackle inflation. MOST people would agree that there is a strong element of speculation underlying the current inflation and that forward trading contributes to it. Yet the government, though it has banned forward trading in certain commodities under public pressure, is curiously reluctant to see this point....
More »Onion forces govt to rethink farm liberalisation by Prabha Jagannathan
The heat generated by the high food inflation may force the government to go slow, or even drop, some of its key proposals to open up the country's food and fertiliser sectors, experts say. Decontrolling sugar and urea and freeing up some farm exports are some of the proposals the government may not touch in the coming days, they say. The proposal on foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail may also...
More »Nabard launches Rs 25,019 cr credit plan for Orissa
In a bid to facilitate agriculture and rural development in the backward state, Nabard today launched a Rs 25,019 crore credit plan for Orissa during 2011-12. The credit plan was launched by state Finance Minister Prafulla Ghadai at the state level credit seminar here. While annual credit plan for the state during the current fiscal is Rs 16,915 crore, it was increased by 48 per cent for 2011-12. While agricultural...
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