-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government has accepted before Parliament's Public Accounts Committee that the findings of the Comptroller and Auditor General on UPA's Rs 52,000 crore farm debt waiver scheme were correct. The auditor in its test check had discovered large-scale irregularities where undeserving farmers were given waiver benefit - at least one-third of the total disbursement were found questionable. On Thursday, the PAC will meet here to give...
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When cities guzzle water-Himanshu Thakkar and Parineeta Dandekar
-CivilSocietyOnline.com More than 50 people, including tribal groups, social activists, water experts, ecologists, wildlife experts and academics, came together for a brainstorming workshop on ‘Dams coming up for Mumbai Region.' The meeting was organised by the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, Shramik Mukti Sangathana, and Jalbiradari. About 12 dams are planned or are under construction to satisfy the increasing thirst of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). All these dams...
More »India has the highest population of illiterate adults: Unesco -Prashant K Nanda
-Live Mint At 287 million, India has 37% of the total population of illiterate adults across the world, according a Unesco report New Delhi: The world will miss its goal of universal education by 2015, with millions of children and adults still to be schooled, said a United Nations (UN) body. India has the highest population of illiterate adults, 287 million, 37% of the total population of such people across the world,...
More »Illegal sale of PDS food grain on the rise-Yunus Y Lasania
-The Hindu Huge quantities of stock being routinely seized from middle-men Hyderabad: How much of food grain supplied under the Public Distribution System (PDS) is actually being consumed by white-card holders? Does the scheme truly satisfy its beneficiaries? While the answers are elusive, the fact remains that large quantities of stock are being sold illegally. Statistics provided by the Vigilance & Enforcement (V&E) Department show that huge quantities of stock are routinely being...
More »Growing demand for cropland threatens environment, UN agency reports
-The United Nations If demand for new land on which to grow food continues at the current rate, by 2050, high-end estimates are that area nearly the size of Brazil could be ruined, with vital forests, savannahs and grassland lost, the United Nations today warned in a new report. Up to 849 million hectares of natural land may be degraded, according to report, "Assessing Global Land Use: Balancing Consumption with Sustainable Supply",...
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