-PTI Centre today announced a hike in allocation of grants for construction of houses for BPL families under the Indira Awas Yojana from Rs 45,000 to Rs 75,000 per dwelling unit. For hilly and Naxal affected areas, the grants for constructing houses under the scheme will go up from Rs 48,500 crore to Rs 80000, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said here. "The outlay for IAY in 2012-2013 was Rs 11000 crore and...
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No interim stay on roadside meetings-J Venkatesan
-The Hindu The Supreme Court on Tuesday admitted an appeal from Kerala challenging a Kerala High Court judgment declaring unconstitutional certain provisions of a law enacted by the State to allow meetings on public roads and road margins. A Bench of Justices D.K. Jain and Madan B. Lokur issued notice to the respondents (who were petitioners in the High Court) and directed the hearing to be expedited. When senior counsel K.K. Venugopal,...
More »Economy may bottom out on improving monsoon in the current quarter- Vinay Pandey
-The Economic Times The worst of drought may be behind after the near normal rains since fourth week of July, raising hopes that the economy could bottom out in the current quarter and even get a big push from a likely good Rabi harvest. The deficit in the weekly rainfall in the three weeks to August 15, the crucial sowing period in north India, has been less than 4%, almost normal rainfall. The...
More »Reforms, competition in distribution and end to coal monopoly only antidotes to power failures-Arvind Panagariya
-The Economic Times The power failure in India on July 30-31 was big news in US media. When the radio and TV stations began calling with the question whether this spelt the end to India's claims to global-power status, my first reaction was to remind them that a similar failure of the grid in 2003 had drowned the entire Northeast and Midwest in the US and Ontario in Canada into darkness. But,...
More »Farmers prefer to sow rice, sugar cane-Ruchira Singh
-Live Mint Notwithstanding the drought, farmers have preferred to sow sugar cane and rice instead of opting for less Water-intensive crops such as coarse grains and pulses. The latest sowing data released by the agriculture ministry as of 16 August shows that area under coarse cereals and pulses is down 13% and 12.39%, respectively, from last year, while that for rice and sugar cane contracted only 3.57% and 4.53%, respectively. In the process,...
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