-Hindustan Times New delhi: At least Rs 3,900 crore was laundered through shell companies between November-December after the ban on high-value banknotes, investigations by a central agency have found. The probe by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) has also identified at least 54 people who helped 559 beneficiaries with laundering the illicit cash, sources said. The government recalled 500 and 1000-rupee notes on November 8 in a move it said was aimed...

-The Telegraph New delhi: One in five television programmes in India display tobacco, but only 5 per cent of programmes with tobacco scenes show the mandatory anti-tobacco health spots at the start and middle, a survey conducted for the government has suggested. The survey found tobacco depicted in 22 per cent of programmes in a sample based on nine hours of programming each of 45 of India's 446 TV channels. But it...

-The Hindu Surakhpur, declared ‘fully digital payment enabled’ by government, rues low literacy, poor connectivity Around 10 days ago, a team of delhi government officials handed over two PoS (point of sale) machines to kirana (grocery) store owners Surat Singh and Ramesh Kumar, both residents of Surakhpur village in Najafgarh, on the delhi-Haryana border. The officials taught the two how to use the machines. On Wednesday, when The Hindu visited the village, where...

  Amidst concerns over budgetary cuts in social sector spending, a recent statement from Shri Rao Inderjit Singh, Minister of State for Planning reveals that unemployment rate has risen much sharper among the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) vis-à-vis the overall population. Replying to a starred question by Shri PL Punia regarding Human Development Index (HDI) of SCs and STs, the Minister of State for Planning said on 6 February,...

-Livemint.com Rural ministry wants same parameters of rate change in MGNREGS as state wages New delhi: The rural development ministry has put on hold a recommendation by a high-level panel constituted by the previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government for parity between the wages paid under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and the minimum wages set by different state governments. Rural development secretary Amarjeet Sinha on Wednesday said the...