The outcome of a social audit (conducted in April this year) related to the pilot cash transfer programme in the public distribution system (PDS) in Nagri block (Ranchi district) has confirmed that most beneficiaries want back the normal ration system that existed previously. Yet the Jharkhand state government continues with the DBT-based PDS in Nagri block, instead of returning back to the older system, says a press release by the...

-Hindustan Times Subramanian says due to less suitable global economic scene, reaching double-digit growth will need more hard work The announcement that Arvind Subramanian, India’s Chief Economic Advisor (CEA), is quitting for personal reasons to return to the United States has generated considerable attention. The CEA spoke to Prashant Jha about his time in government and the state of the economy: * As you look back, what are the key highlights and the...

-The Tribune Hoshiarpur: Progressive farmer of backward Kandi area of Hoshiarpur district, Parlad Singh from Namolihar village, has become a role model for others by adopting organic farming. Beginning in 1998 with the cultivation of his 7 acres of ancestral land, he is now successfully practising diversified organic farming. He has been earning a much greater deal as compared to traditional wheat-paddy farming. Parlad said starting with his 7 acres of ancestral...

-OdishaTV.in Meet Daitari Nayak, a 70 year old farmer who single-handedly carved out a three kilometer canal from the Gonasika mountains so that the water stream could reach down and irrigate the parched fields and settlements below. The "canal man" as people fondly call him, patiently cut the steep hillsides and cleared the rocks for more than four years to make the stream slowly snake down. Bhubaneswar: The refreshing greens in more...

-The Telegraph Chandigarh: Bureaucrats in Haryana now have to stand up - "meticulously correct and courteous" - every time an MP or an MLA visits their office, according to a circular. The circular had been issued in the last week of May but came to light following the standoff between the Delhi government led by Arvind Kejriwal and IAS officers in Delhi. Several senior Haryana-cadre bureaucrats in Chandigarh claimed they had heard about...