-The Times of India BHUBANESWAR: With lakhs of people hit by floods in the wake of cyclone Phailin, Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday sought immediate release of Rs 1,523 crore from the Centre for relief and rehabilitation. "I request the Centre to release an advance of Rs 1,000 crore over and above the corpus of Rs 523 crore available in the State Disaster Response Fund for the year 2013-14," Naveen...

-The Business Standard Contrary to earlier claims, farm growth may be robust The projection by the ComMISsion for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) of robust agricultural growth of above five per cent and a consequential handsome rise in rural incomes comes as a silver lining to India's otherwise gloomy economic scene. The CACP's reckoning, based on a rigorous mathematical model, virtually discounts the agriculture ministry's kharif crop output estimates (called first advance...

-The Economic Times Sometimes, putting one and one together does make 11, but many of us seem hardwired in our thoughts to assume rural income growth is a zero-sum game. For example, some people believe subsidies have driven the 15-20 per cent a-year growth in rural wages over the last five years. They come up with "explanations", including "people are selling land and consuming", "rising minimum support prices", and "NREGA is...

-The Times of India BHUBANESWAR: The United Nations on Tuesday appreciated the state government's preparedness in dealing with the 'very very severe' cyclone Phailin, saying it would highlight the efforts as a successful case study globally. Terming the evacuation of nearly one million people, which ensured minimal loss of human lives, a 'landmark success story', special representative of the UN secretary general for disaster risk reduction Margareta Wahlstrom told TOI, "We are...

-The Hindu Delayed payments to poor households threaten to scuttle scheme to build toilets under Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan Churu (Rajasthan): Three years ago, Churu, a town of 1.2-lakh people in the Thar desert, was ranked India's dirtiest town by the Planning ComMISsion. Two years ago, the overall district had over 40 per cent households with no toilet of their own. Today, the district is close to its goal of becoming open defecation-free,...