-The Financial Express In Madhya Pradesh’s tribal districts of Dewas and Khargone, the NGO, Samaj Pragati Sahayog, discourages cash transactions for agricultural inputs. The interest rates are usurious and vary according to commodities. For fertiliser, it is dheda—loan for the stuff has to be repaid 1.5 times over by the end of the harvest season. For pesticides it is sawa, or 1.25 times. Even barter can be extortionate. One quintal of...
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Set up body to look into complaints against channels: Supreme Court -Dhananjay Mahapatra
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Given the rapid proliferation of TV channels, the Supreme Court suggested on Thursday that the Union government set up a statutory mechanism to decide people's grievances against programmes broadcast on the visual medium. A bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud said, "We are of the view that the competent authority, having framed the rules under the Cable TV Network (Regulation)...
More »Note recall most hurtful: Farmers
-The Telegraph New Delhi: A nationwide network of farmers today dubbed the demonetisation exercise "the most hurtful scheme since independence" and claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pledges for the agriculture sector announced on December 31 were "a rehash of what already exists". The network of farmers' associations and representatives from across the country said in a letter sent to the Prime Minister that the demonetisation move had shown a "dismaying disregard"...
More »Rural India on the National Optic Fibre Network: What Happens Next? -Preeti Mudliar
-The Hindu Centre for Politics and Public Policy As one of the world’s largest rural connectivity endeavours, the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) project has been the subject of immense policy interest for the potential it holds to deliver high speed broadband internet to rural India. The building of infrastructure on a scale of this kind was acknowledged as an audacious move owing to the nature of transformation that this could...
More »World Bank warns of road funds cut -Roopak Goswami
-The Telegraph Guwahati: The World Bank has warned the Assam government that the loan amount sanctioned for the Assam State Roads Project may be slashed if the pace of implementation does not improve by March 2017. In the implementation status and results report of the project, released on December 21, the bank said the Assam State Roads Project is unlikely to achieve the project development objective due to poor progress and the...
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