-Livemint.com Drought declaration can provide farmers relief through compensation for crop damage and restructuring of loans New Delhi: Even though the monsoon ended with a 14% rainfall deficit, with nearly half the country’s districts facing a shortage of over 20%, states are delaying declaring a drought that could provide immediate relief to farmers by compensating for crop damage and restructuring farm loans. The June-September monsoon, which irrigates over half the country’s farm...

-PTI The govt would also increase monthly widow pension from Rs 500 to Rs 2,000 in the families of farmers who had committed suicide Haveri (Karnataka): Providing succour to distressed farmers, the Karnataka government today announced waiver of interest and penal interest on crop loans from cooperative banks for the current fiscal and hike in compensation from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh to families of farmers who had committed suicide. The...

-The Hindu Bubble createdby them resulted in high NPAs Banks caused a bubble, failed to do due diligence and lent more than what was warranted to developers, and this has led to the high Non-Performing Assets (NPA) arising out of the road sector, Road Secretary Vijay Chhibber told The Hindu in an exclusive interview on Wednesday. “The banks have killed the road sector,” he said. “There was a bubble because the banks would...

-Livemint.com Given condition of land records and problems in identifying actual beneficiaries, the task is gigantic, say analysts New Delhi: The Aadhaar-based direct benefit transfer (DBT) of fertilizer subsidies may not see the light of day anytime soon. “The roll-out of DBT in fertilizer will take some time because there are various hurdles,” said a government official, who is working on DBT. The official, who requested anonymity, said that “this is more challenging”...

-The Hindu The Compensatory Afforestation Bill has raised significant money, which must be used to restore existing forests rather than on artificial plantations On Parliament’s wooden desks, a Bill is knocking. The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill seeks to govern how forests will be raised, cut, and resurrected across India. It will be looking at how a fund of Rs. 38,000 crore, collected from cutting down forests, is to be used. Meant initially just...