-PTI While petrol prices are market-linked, govt fixes LPG, kerosene and diesel rates, which results in huge expenditure on subsidies Making a case for raising prices of diesel, kerosene and LPG, the Reserve Bank today said hike in rates of petroleum products is necessary to arrest fiscal slippages. "Overall from the perspective of vulnerabilities emerging from the fiscal and current account deficits, it is imperative for macroeconomic stability that administered prices of petroleum...
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What are the challenges & possible solutions in the implemention of RTE Act- Labonita Ghosh
A fourth of school students will need to be from less-privileged sections of society following an SC ruling on the RTE Act. While this can bring in social transformation, there are implementation challenges. Educationists share some solutions with Labonita Ghosh Problem 1: WHO WILL FOOT THE BILL? The government has offered to pay for the 25% of less-privileged students who will now have to be admitted into private schools, but it's not...
More »'Microfinance Bill impediment for self-help groups'
-The Business Standard The Microfinance Bill in its present form may hurt the growth of the Self-Help Group (SHG) programme being run across states to bring people above the poverty line, according to Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh. “The Bill needs to be rewritten. MFIs are not instruments for poverty alleviation,” Ramesh said in an interaction with reporters after he reviewed initiatives by NABARD in an SHG-bank link programme. He, however, did...
More »Is ‘Didi’ Headed For a Fall? by Anuradha Sharma
Aamra ekhon-o boli ni kon kagoj porte hobe, kintu agami dine kintu setao bole debo. (Till now, we haven’t told which newspapers must be read, but in the future, we will do that as well.) – West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, speaking on March 29 in defense of her government’s decision to bar all but 13 newspapers from more than 2,400 government-approved libraries across the state. “Kunal Ghosh, associate editor...
More »UK aid helps to fund forced sterilisation of India's poor-Gethin Chamberlain
Money from the Department for International Development has helped pay for a controversial programme that has led to miscarriages and even deaths after botched operations Tens of millions of pounds of UK aid money have been spent on a programme that has forcibly sterilised Indian women and men, the Observer has learned. Many have died as a result of botched operations, while others have been left bleeding and in agony. A...
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