India is moving towards computing the value of unpaid work done by millions of people to compensate them in some way.
It not only wants the ministry of petroleum and natural gas to rework the under-recovery figure for the current year but has also decided to look at the issue of oil subsidies only in February 2010, when the next Budget will be announced.
They want more cash, forex, higher bond coupons and increase in market prices for petrol, diesel, LPG.
Gap is hoping to find enough cows for its cotton farmers. The focus on natural farming, it says, will provide relief to cotton farmers as the high cost of fertilisers is one of the reasons for their being in debt.
According to the SEZ Act, 2005, there is no upper limit for land acquisition by state governments. It also allows acquisition of wasteland and single-crop land, putting negative impact on common property resources like land, forest and water bodies.
Financial losses at nearby units in crores, air quality severely affected
A government that limits its role to regulation would be a great enabler for agricultural growth.
Magsaysay awardee Aruna Roy tells Sreelatha Menon that she is ready to chase a new dream, a School for Democracy.
Reliance Industries Ltd has decided not to use its allocation of gas from the Krishna-Godavari basin's D6 field for petrochemical production; it will, instead, swap it with gas available from other sources. It will use D6 gas only for power generation.
The Employees Provident Fund Organisation will be seeking approval from its apex decision-making body, the Central Board of Trustees, to implement a finance ministry order to invest up to 15 percent of the fund in equity. The new pattern that was notified last year comes into force from April 2010.
The first meeting of the newly-reconstituted Central Employment Guarantee Council last week, meant to oversee the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme, saw two prominent members, Jean Dreze and Aruna Roy, object to various new ideas of the government, beginning with the one of using it to build Bharat Nirman Rajiv Gandhi Seva Kendras, meant to serve as offices for panchayats.
The government may consider a public-private partnership (PPP) mode for setting up national gas highways to ensure distribution across the country.
Putting an end to the fierce scramble for India's iron ore resources, the government has decided to split the Chiria iron ore mines in Jharkhand into two and give at least half the reserves to Steel Authority of India Ltd for its expansion plans. The other half will be kept for development by the private sector later, said informed sources.
Social audit of rural jobs scheme promises to empower people with information about how they are being denied the benefits of the schemes meant for them.
The department had earlier also examined the option of a direct equity sale but opted for a PPP model because it offered revenue sharing opportunities, fertiliser secretary Atul Chaturvedi said. Chaturvedi explained that whereas the outright sale of equity will mean the government will have to wait for the plants to make profits to get a share of revenue, the PPP mode will help it do so in the first year.
Government-owned Steel Authority of India Ltd, the country's largest steel producer, is looking to set up two greenfield slag-based cement manufacturing units with a total capacity of 3 million tonnes through a joint venture.
Government-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, the country's largest petro exploration company, wants to hire an ultra deep-sea drill rig, the daily cost of which is about Rs 5 crore.
With production hitting a three-year low of 14.7 million tonnes in this sugar season (October to September), the government is also expected to double the levy quota for the PDS from 10 to 20 per cent to tide over shortages. The levy price and quota act as a notional benchmark for open market sugar prices, which have doubled to Rs 34 to Rs 35 a kg since last September, owing to a global shortage. The price of levy sugar is half that of the open market price.
As Cairn India began to pump crude oil on Monday from its Mangala oilfield here.
The government was able to initiate crucial steps in the ministries of rural development, human resource development, home, finance and commerce, thanks to energetic ministers, but did not exactly win laurels on other fronts.
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