-PTI   Mumbai: The RBI today asked Banks to provide loans up to Rs 3 lakh at 7 per cent interest rate to Women Self-Help Group (SHG) under the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM)-Aajeevika scheme during 2015-16. “All women SHGs will be eligible for interest subvention on credit up to Rs 3 lakhs at 7 per cent per annum. SHG availing capital subsidy under Swarnjayanti Gram Swarojgar Yojana (SGSY) in their...

-The Hindu However, it is among the highest consumers of smokeless forms of tobacco The preliminary findings from National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) released last week have given anti-tobacco campaigners a reason to smile. The survey has found that across the board, people — both men and women — in India are smoking less than they were a decade ago. Not just tobacco, even alcohol consumption among Indians has fallen. According to the...

-Livemint.com Despite its positive features, the scheme may not be adequate to tackle pollution in the national capital Delhi’s unique experiment of having odd-even numbered vehicles off the roads on alternate days to combat high levels of air pollution has ignited a debate on the merits and efficacy of the policy. A recent Indian Express article, co-authored by US-based scholars Michael Greenstone, Santosh Harish, Anant Sudarshan and Rohini Pande, argued that the odd-even...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Identifying "informal tenancy" as one of the main reasons behind farmer suicides since many don't get farm credit and crop insurance, a group of secretaries has suggested the government come out with a model tenancy law. Such a law will protect the tenants as they will get access to loans from Banks and financing agencies and it will also end the fear of original owners...

-Scroll.in Institutions that provide cheap or free meals are not mere populism – they are vital for the food security of people on the margins. My first experience of a “community kitchen” was in Brazil where we were taken to try out a meal at the Popular Restaurant in Lauros de Freitas. The serpentine queue outside it surprising initially, seemed entirely unexceptional once we had been served: for one real (approximately Rs...