-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Just a day after Haryana amended the law to allow construction in sections of the ecologically sensitive Aravalis and also protect previous construction, the Supreme Court stayed the decision, slamming it as wilful adventurism that violates the court’s previous orders. The court said the Haryana government’s action was “obnoxious and contemptuous” and expressed annoyance at its “temerity” to violate the SC order that banned mining and...

-The Hindu Business Line Implementation issues in Fasal Bima Yojana need to be addressed A BusinessLine series from perennially drought-prone Jalna and Parbhani districts in Maharashtra has brought to the fore implementation lapses in the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY). Farmers have not been compensated for crop damage, owing to multiple factors. Chief among these is irregularities in crop cutting experiments. The CCEs are meant to be carried in the presence...

-The Hindu Business Line Pune: Noticing that some banks had diverted the first instalment of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) scheme to farmers’ loan accounts, the Maharashtra government has instructed banks to return the money to farmers. Speaking to BusinessLine, Maharashtra’s Commissioner of Agriculture, Suhas Diwase, said that banks that had diverted the PM-Kisan instalment to farmers’ loan accounts have reversed the transactions after the government’s instructions: “There are strict instructions...

-The Hindu Business Line Canada, US serve counter-notification to India India’s minimum support price (MSP) programme for pulses has come under greater scrutiny at the World Trade Organization (WTO) with the US, Canada and Australia serving it a formal counter-notification, alleging that the subsidy involved was much higher than the permitted cap. The EU, New Zealand, Ukraine and Paraguay also joined the chorus against the country. Defending itself at the agriculture committee meeting...

-The Indian Express Indian statistical system can withstand political pressures. Legislation and public scrutiny can strengthen it further. One unfortunate fallout of the recent controversy regarding the non-publication of the labour force survey report by the National Sample Survey Organisation has been the questions raised on the autonomy and independence of the Indian official statistical system. As reported in this newspaper, the possibility of junking the survey report in favour of...