Providing cheap rice and wheat to 67.5% population would raise subsidy bills 45% to up to Rs 1.3 trn, and the country.
In a big boost to farm sector, Finance Minister P Chidambaram proposed a whopping Rs 1.25 lakh crore increase in agri-credit target for next fiscal at Rs 7 lakh crore and raised allocation to the ministry by a handsome 22 per cent.
Chidambaram's remarks come amid clear indications from the party that it was keen that the proposed laws on food security and land acquisition are passed in this session.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday strongly backed the Centre's new Direct Benefit Transfer system that will ensure cash transfer directly in the hands of beneficiaries of various schemes, saying it is in line with many other "revolutionary" measures taken by the UPA.
The Delhi-based Centre for Environment and Food Security has filed an application in the Supreme Court seeking a thorough probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act scam in Bihar.
Wants to gear up for implementation of the proposed Food Security Act.
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The CPI(M) on Thursday slammed the Planning Commission estimates on poverty levels in the country, saying these made "a mockery of life and death struggles" of the people, amidst continuous rise in prices and "massive" slashing of subsidies for the poor.
Both central and Maharashtra governments have spent around Rs 29.5 crores on Ajmal Kasab to provide him food, security, medicines and clothes during his confinement in Arthur Road Central prison in Mumbai, official sources said on Wednesday.
Prof Ananth Narayan, well known financial expert who works as a faculty member at the SP Jain Institute of Management and Research and the RBI's nominee director on the board of Yes Bank, expects a double-digit contraction in India's GDP this fiscal year. In the first of a two-part interview to Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com, Prof Narayan, below, says, "Giving liquidity and loan to cover the cash flow problem is not sufficient because you are essentially increasing the debt of many of these companies. And they might not be able to bear the burden."
He felt particularly upset with the Left parties protesting on issues such as cooking gas and electricity prices and 'aam admi' pursuits rather than the broader picture.
Nearly 73 per cent of the funds allotted for the implantation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee Act in 38 districts of Bihar between 2006 and 2012 have been embezzled by authorities. Bihar spent a total amount of Rs 8,189 crore during 6 years on NREGA, according to an audit conducted by the Delhi-based Centre for Environment and Food Security.
'Government is saying that I will not be responsible for ensuring you get MSP but traders and large corporate will be responsible. 'India now is the only country that is saying such things'
The Communist Party of India Marxist on Friday announced that it will contest the Gujarat assembly polls in December from at least ten constituencies. "In Gujarat, our party is going to contest total ten seats. Today we are releasing a list of six candidates and we will later announce other names," former Member of Parliament and CPI-M leader Sukomal Sen said while releasing the party manifesto.
Almost no legislative business was transacted making it the worst session of Parliament ever. Devika Malik lists the options out of the current impasse
A Parliamentary panel suggested scrapping separate foodgrain rate and quota for poor and general public and said the UPA's ambitious Food Bill should guarantee 5 kg of rice and wheat to all beneficiaries at uniform price of Rs 3 and Rs 2 per kg, respectively.
The prime minister is likely to talk about its possible extension.
Both the Congress and the UPA government are racing against time to try and revamp their image with the people. The new direct benefit transfer schemes, the proposed food security bill, the land acquisition bill and perhaps the women's reservation bill are among the vehicles that the Congress intends to use to reach out to the people, says Saroj Nagi.
'It is a national shame that the only country that enacted a food security act is now better known as the land of farmer suicides. Indian farming can change only if national irrigation policy is implemented in totality,' Dr M S Swaminathan tells Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com
A slew of Bills that will have a significant effect on India's financial landscape are likely to come up in the Monsoon session of Parliament.
The study paper by Melbourne-based think-tank Australia India Institute titled 'The G20: Challenges and opportunities Ahead', said following Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US and his talks with US President Barack Obama, India may finally sign the agreement.
Cops clash with teachers who were on dharna demanding their salaries, which they have not received for 17 months.
With Lok Sabha polls not too far away, Congress President Sonia Gandhi signalled that the ambitious Food Security and Land Acquisition Acts brought in by the Centre would give a new deal to the people, especially the farmers and the poor.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has faced a lot of flak on the Gujarat development mode. On Tuesday, criticism came from an unexpected corner when principal of St Xavier's College in Mumbai, one of the premiere institutions, sent out a letter to nearly 3,000 students critiquing Gujarat's development model.
Union Cabinet committee on accommodation has allotted 6 Krishna Menon Marg -- the prestigious type 8 bungalow -- to the Jagjivan Ram Foundation.
A much stronger focus was required on irrigation and water management. The FM merely acknowledged that it was a problem.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who has been spearheading the UPA's ambitious Food Security Bill, left the Lok Sabha while the voting was underway on Monday night on various amendments moved by the Opposition.
Initial investigations suggested that the jawans fell ill after consuming fish curry.
If the actress fails to respond to the notice within the stipulated time frame, a case could be registered against her, Food Security Officer Mahimanand Joshi said.
The government will consider imposing stock holding limits on food items like pulses and cooking oils to check hoarding for containing price rise, Food Minister K V Thomas said.
'Designer rice' or genetically-modified rice variety, is going to be the answer for food security and will help in increasing rice production in the coming years.
On a day when a full-page email interview with the prime minister appeared in the Hindustan Times, the National Advisory Council, chaired by Sonia Gandhi, on Friday slammed the United Progressive Alliance government for not implementing a score of its recommendations, including food security to all, made in the past two years.
Development issues of vital interest to India are expected to receive focused attention at the G20 Summit beginning in Cannes on Wednesday, a Ficci Paper on the B20 Working Group on Development said.
Thousands of Communist party of India-Marxist workers in Kerala on Wednesday laid siege to the government secretariat during a protest that forced Chief Minister Oommen Chandy to reach his office around 5 am, hours before a cabinet meeting.
Shiv Sena, a constituent of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance, on Monday defended Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's "Hindu nationalist" remark, saying the Janata Dal-United's decision to snap ties with the party was "wrong".
Is she, like the AIADMK's Jayalalithaa with the Vajpayee government in 1998, playing bully to a government that she knows cannot survive without her Parliamentary support? Or is there a greater scheme behind her erratic actions? Discussing the mercurial Mamata Banerjee on the Rediff Chat is Senior Editor Indrani Roy, a long-time watcher of Bengal and Mamata politics.
The PM held wide-ranging talks with the Sultan of Oman and signed eight agreements, including pacts on cooperation in the field of defence, health and tourism.
The most experienced administrator in the country seems to have sat back and allowed bureaucrats and policemen to manage the lockdown, observes Jyoti Punwani.
In a veiled attack on Congress and Samajwadi Party, Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused them of continuing to practice vote-bank politics to divide society and asserted that disturbance of peace and harmony will not be tolerated.
The two-day conference, which saw participation of ministers and senior officials from all the states, was marked by brainstorming in the run up to the expected enactment of the government's ambitious Food Security Bill.
The initiative has been taken so that only the needy can avail the benefits of the governments' scheme.
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