-The Times of India NEW delhi: The government has given out cooking gas connections free of cost to 1.5 crore poor households under the 'Ujjwala' scheme, achieving the target set for the 2016-17 financial year in eight months on the back of a massive outreach in rural areas. The scheme was launched on May 1 by PM Narendra Modi at a rally in UP's Ballia district. The scheme envisages providing LPG connection...

-Livemint.com Prices may dip further once the harvest from Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh hits markets in January New delhi: After moong, prices of arhar, a major rain-fed kharif crop, have plunged below support prices in major growing states such as Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh where the crop has reached markets. The dip in wholesale prices follows a record crop due to a normal south-west monsoon and farmers increasing its acreage, taking a...

-Livemint.com We need a strategy to control air pollution across north India, and better monitoring is the first requirement From the debate over Arvind Kejriwal’s odd-even policy to outrage over poisonous post-Diwali smog, India’s public discourse on air pollution was centred in and around delhi in 2016. This needs to change if we want to evolve an effective strategy to counter pollution. Before delving into the reasons for this, it might be...

-The Times of India NEW delhi: Tomato and other vegetables prices, including those of onion and potato, have come down after demonetisation. But the National Horticulture Board, which tracks horticultural produce markets across the country , has found that the fall has more to do with transporters' resistance to pick up the produce from farms than to a poor cash flow at the farmers' end. Ground reports, shared with the board, have...

-The Hindu There has been a 33 per cent rise in the number of train derailments this fiscal compared to the previous year. “We have been able to reduce unmanned level crossing accidents to an extent. However, accidents due to derailment have gone up to 68 this year from 51 in the previous year,” Railway Board Member Traffic Mohd. Jamshed told a press conference here on Wednesday. He, however, said the total number...