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 …
New Delhi: Just when UPA is grappling with food inflation, Union minister M K Alagiri has sounded alarm over shooting fertilizer prices under the Nutrient-Based Subsidy (NBS), saying the policy introduced in the last budget was hurting the poor farmer. Ten months after the Centre freed fertilizer price and linked …
Madhya Pradesh is set to overhaul its public distribution system. It has decided to issue PDS users in the state with biometric cards so that no one can impersonate or fake identity. It will also replace food grain with food coupons. In August last year the state signed a Rs …
To ensure proper use of its Rs. 86,553 crore annual rural spending, an ambitious curriculum to train and educate all those involved in the execution of the programmes concerned is on the anvil. This mass-based decentralised capacity building process, the first of its kind among developing countries, intends to develop …
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Thursday that the government was committed to bring to Parliament a Right to Food Act which would serve as a viable safety net for the poor and the vulnerable sections among whom malnutrition was particularly high. Addressing an international conference on
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Wednesday pulled up the Food Ministry and Planning Commission for the lack of urgency in augmenting foodgrain storage capacity despite the government having to face embarrassment over instances of grain lying in the open and rotting. Mukherjee aired his exasperation with the slow pace of augmenting …
THE Planning Commission will formulate an action plan for central Indian tribal areas in the 12th Five-Year Plan that begins next year. The Plan panel had abandoned a similar programme for Naxal districts following differences with the Home Ministry. The new plan would include the Red Corridor where Naxal activity …
KOLKATA, 4 FEB: Criticising railway minister Miss Mamata Banerjee, CPI-M Politburo member Mr Sitaram Yechury said: “Miss Banerjee is the first railway minister who has brought the ministry to such a sorry state of affairs. She is announcing railway projects without any clearance from the Planning Commission or any budgetary …
The achievements of Madhya Pradesh Fisheries Federation will be valuated by the State Planning Commission. It was decided at the meeting of Board of Directors (BoD) at Mantralaya on Tuesday. The meeting was chaired by the Fisheries Minister Ajay Vishnoi. Principal Secretary Fisheries Ajita Vajpayee was also present. Fish farming …
The long-awaited move to bring urea under the Nutrient-Based Subsidy (NBS) scheme is likely to be announced in the upcoming finance budget, to be unveiled on February 28 even as the government would decontrol its prices gradually. The committee of secretaries (CoS) under Planning Commission Saumitra Chaudhuri is currently working …
The debate over food security is becoming an exercise in callow dissimulation, where we devote our energies to ensure that food security remains a mirage. The core objective should be simple. It is a scandal that after two decades of high growth, India still does not make adequate nutrition available …
Efforts to boost agricultural productivity in the country must be seen in the context of climate change, a key agenda in the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2012-2017), said K. Kasturirangan, member of the Planning Commission. Pincered While agricultural productivity must increase by 2 per cent a year if it has …
Planning Commission said states would have to bear additional payment towards the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) beyond the amount prescribed by the Centre to match minimum wages.
After opening the complete Badarpur corridor last week, next on the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation's (DMRC) list is the Phase III of the Metro, work on which is likely to begin by April this year. DMRC officials are currently busy working on the detailed project report of the Phase III, …
New Delhi: The National Advisory Council (NAC) has run up against a wall in the government yet again. The environment and tribal affairs ministries have stopped replying to the Sonia Gandhi-led body on reforms in the Forest Rights Act (FRA). The council had earlier run into opposition from the food …
To facilitate smooth movement of ore in the country, the Ministry of Mines has asked the Planning Commission to expedite the pending infrastructure projects in mineral-rich states.
