Nearly 65% of adults in the Arab region remain excluded from formal financial systems, according to a new report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). The Annual SDG Review 2025 paints a sobering picture of persistent financial exclusion that is undermining the region’s ability …
With an aim to bring about the second green revolution through adoption of effective scientific agricultural methods, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) under Agriculture Ministry has proposed 100 more Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVK) across the country in the 12th Plan. In a proposal sent to the apex planning …
New Delhi An inter-ministerial meeting on Thursday underscored the urgency for providing a level playing field to the domestic power equipment industry facing the onslaught of cheaper Chinese imports but it failed to agree over how much duty should be imposed on imported equipment. The meeting was called by heavy …
The Odisha government on Thursday urged the Central Plan Panel to help include Odisha in the Reconstructed Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (RAPDRP) for the development of power sector. Stating that the 50 per cent of the distribution and transmission infrastructure in Odisha are old and failing to cater …
The second generation of reforms needs the manufacturing policy to create consensus and jobs ET, in its lead editorial on October 28, 2011, has described the National Manufacturing Policy (NMP) as ‘a waste of time’. It concludes, “Let us work for these, and shun hollow policies.” ‘These’ are ET’s recommendations …
New Delhi: Facing the spectre of another costly bailout of power distribution companies, some of which have started defaulting on payments to suppliers, the Centre has decided to take preemptive action. It has set up a committee under the chairmanship of Planning Commission member (energy) BK Chaturvedi to suggest ways …
Union road transport and highways minister C P Joshi on Tuesday called for a stronger political mandate to involve private enterprise in the development of the country's creaking infrastructure. Opposition to public-private partnership (PPP) needs to soften if India was to hasten expansion of roads, ports and bridges, he felt. …
Number of people who can benefit from government’s welfare programmes is going to swell. Currently, the Central government caps the entitlements under most welfare programmes to those below the poverty line, which is as low as Rs 12/day/person for rural areas and Rs 18/day/person for urban areas.
Ranchi, Oct. 27: The Planning Commission has set a December deadline for the Jharkhand government to complete a majority of the projects launched under the Centre’s Integrated Action Plan (IAP) in the 14 Naxalite-hit districts of the state. Planning Commission senior consultant Ranjan Chatterjee, who arrived in Ranchi this morning, …
Apart from ensuring the immediate appointment of 18,000 panchayat development officers and as many junior engineers, the Centre has drawn up a blueprint to provide jobs to three-lakh youth in the 60 left wing extremist affected districts in the country. Union Minister of Rural Development Jairam Ramesh, in his consolidated …
But Research by JNU profs shows inequality has increased in both rural & urban areas Poverty in India has fallen at twice the rate since 2004-05 as compared with the previous decade, says a study by two professors of Delhi’s Jawarharlal Nehru University. The average annual decline in poverty rose …
B K Chaturvedi committee’s recommendations may form part of the final 12th Plan document. One common complaint that most states aired at the just-concluded National Development Council meeting was the inflexibility of certain centrally-sponsored schemes (CSS) when it came to addressing local requirements. This was against the backdrop of a …
GANGTOK: The Sikkim Government has submitted a memorandum to the Central Government for Rs 3500 crore for short term rehabilitation measures for the devastation caused by the recent earthquake, official sources said today. The memorandum was not a comprehensive estimate of the total damages incurred by the State, but that …
Inter-State inequalities have significantly narrowed in the last decade, but nutrition and sanitation are still a big concern, says the Human Development Report 2011. The findings of the report are significant as they come a day before the full National Development Council meeting, headed by the Prime Minister on Saturday. …
CHENNAI: Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Wednesday defended the new economic policy and poverty alleviation schemes of the Eleventh Plan saying it was too early to state that the policy had failed. “We have to look at the data of recent years before we declare that …
Missing coal linkages threaten energy security The power cuts you have lived through for the last fortnight will ease by Diwali. But a far graver crisis looms as India’s brand new power plants start sputtering to a halt, thanks to our dangerous dependence on Indonesia. ET helps you join the …
Five Party-Ruled States Underpaying Workers, Face Anti-Poor Tag New Delhi: The political advantage enjoyed by the Congress for bringing the rural job scheme is under threat with five of its states underpaying workers, a revelation that has prompted the leadership against challenging a court order seeking parity between MGNREGA wages …
This is one reform measure that is coming back to haunt the UPA government. Since potash and phosphatic fertilisers were decontrolled at the beginning of last fiscal, their prices have skyrocketed, raising concerns in the Planning Commission over the likely impact of higher input costs on farm GDP and food …
Alarm bells have started ringing in the government over recent trend of highway builders quoting huge premiums to bag contracts. Road transport and highways minister CP Joshi has directed his officials to do a risk analysis of such bids and devise a mechanism to secure the completion of projects. Essentially, …
The rural development ministry has drawn out a plan to spend as much as Rs 2 lakh crore on two of its major schemes — Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and the Swarna Jayanti Gramin Swarozgar Yojana (SGSY). The ministry, however, has left it to the government and the …
While the state government has accorded in-principle approval to the Railways’ ambitious project for an underground corridor from Oval Maidan to Mahalaxmi station, it has also asked the Railways to simultaneously study the feasibility of an elevated rail corridor on Central Railway and connecting it to the proposed Oval Maidan …
