-The Indian Express In all, the 42 RRBs have sanctioned Stand Up India loans to 536 people — 97 under the SC head, 32 in the ST category and 407 general category women. Three RRBs have not sanctioned a single such loan to general category women. Every bank has been told that it will be your responsibility to ensure that wherever you have a branch, you have to give loans to two...

-The Hindu Flight tickets are often cheaper than train fares on these services thanks to the flexi fare system Railway Minister Piyush Goyal’s announcement last week that the public transporter was reviewing the scheme of flexi fares introduced in September last year reflects the paradox of a surge in railway revenue even as premium trains run with vacant seats. While Railway revenues have surged by Rs. 500 crore in the one year since the...

-TheWire.in In addition to “launching” a scheme that basically already existed, the prime minister’s claim that his government has a good record on rural electrification contradicts the data. Prime Minister Narendra Modi this week announced a reportedly brand new scheme to electrify all villages in India and to provide electricity to all by the end of 2018. The scheme was called the Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana or ‘Saubhagya’ intiative....

-Livemint.com India’s new industrial policy is an opportunity to address the problems of low R&D spending and tough competition from cheap Chinese imports The framing of the new industrial policy should be seen as an opportunity to chart a meaningful path for industry’s role in India’s development. The recently released discussion paper by the department of industrial policy and promotion mentions two points that need to be examined closely to grasp the...

-TheWire.in Eleven years after order, none of the states have conformed to the guidelines, says a Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative report. New Delhi: Eleven years ago, on this day, the Supreme Court had issued directions to the Centre and state governments to transform their police forces into professional, accountable and efficient service units. However, a recent report shows that compliance remains far from satisfactory with none of the governments enacting laws to...