-Outlook The government today cut Rs 79,790 crore from the budgeted Plan expenditure of Rs 5,55,532 crore for the current financial year against the backdrop of a burgeoning fiscal deficit. The Interim Budget 2014-15, presented by Finance Minister P Chidambaram in Parliament, projected revised estimates of the Plan expenditure at Rs 4,75,532 crore for 2013-14. For the next financial year starting April 1, the government has kept the the Budget Estimates of Plan...

-Down to Earth Four-day world congress on agroforestry in Delhi pushes for accelerating growing trees on farms for sustainable agriculture and mitigating climate change impacts In what is seen as a ground-breaking move, India has become the first nation in the world to adopt an agroforestry policy. The National Agroforestry Policy, which deals with the practice of integrating trees, crops and livestock on the same plot of land, was launched February 10,...

-PTI Under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar MISsion, the government aims to connect 20,000 MW of solar power to the National Grid by 2022. India will add nearly 30,000 MW of power generation capacity from renewable energy sources - doubling it from the current size - in the next four years, a senior official said on Wednesday. "We plan to add around 20,000 MW of wind and around 10,000 MW of solar capacity...

-IANS Sikkim has set for itself the goal of becoming an organic agricultural state by 2015 -- but there are several challenges that it needs to overcome to see the shift, said an ecology expert from the Himalayan state. "Organic agriculture, as an adaptation strategy to climate change, is a concrete, holistic and sustainable option but has challenges in terms of acceptance and the sustainability of such a move needs critical appraisal,"...

-Outlook Lucknow: Union Minister Jairam Ramesh has shot off another letter to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav seeking early implementation of the Allahabad High Court order on CBI inquiry into MISappropriation of funds under the NREGA. While recalling his earlier correspondence to the Chief Minister, in a fresh letter issued yesterday, Ramesh stressed on the necessity for a CBI probe into funds MISappropriation in seven districts including Balrampur, Gonda, Mahoba, Sonbhadra,...