The Planning Commission has accepted a food production target of 130 to 132 million tonnes by the end of the Fourth Plan. This target has been projected on the basis of a 100-million tonne potential this year. The production targets suggested for the major cash crops along with their estimated …

The government has allocated only Rs. 500 crore for the scheme What is the scheme? A major announcement in the Interim Budget 2019-20 was the creation of the Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Mandhan, a pension scheme for informal workers. Under this scheme, subscribers will receive an assured monthly pension of …

Seeking a count of 50% of VVPAT slips is too much; the focus should be on ending glitches In a significant and welcome change from their earlier demand for a return to paper ballots, representatives of a large section of the mainstream Opposition parties met the Election Commission (ECI) to …

The Taliban reconciliation process is moving at a faster pace than was anticipated. Talks facilitated by Russia in Moscow this week, with mainstream Afghan politicians sitting around the table with Taliban leaders, are similar in their approach to the recent U.S.-Taliban talks in Qatar, though the two are rival processes. …

On January 30, a little more than four years after the last hike, the Ministry of Science and Technology increased the fellowship stipend for PhD students by nearly 25%. The government says the hike will be reviewed periodically. Since the increase is far less than the 80% hike that research …

Not even U.S. President Donald Trump’s worst enemies would deny that he has fulfilled many election campaign foreign policy promises, including opting out of international agreements on climate change, the Iran nuclear accord and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the relocation of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, and pressurising allies to pay …

In elections to three State Assemblies of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh late last year, candidates of the Muslim faith won 11 of the 520 seats in play. That would seem a modest tally, by no means evidence of disproportionate political influence. The myth of a pampered minority, though, refuses …

The Central and State governments have introduced several innovations in the healthcare sector in recent times, in line with India’s relentless pursuit of reforms. However, while the government’s goal is to increase public health spending to 2.5% of GDP, health spending is only 1.15-1.5% of GDP. To reach its target, …

Scientists said on Wednesday that they have successfully used mice stem cells to grow kidneys in rat embryos, using a technique that could one day help grow human kidneys for transplant. But the researchers cautioned that their success was only a first step and that “serious technical barriers and complex …

The birds use leaves and plant parts to create the right hooks for hunting New Caledonian crows can identify the best plants for fashioning hunting hooks from among myriad shrubs in the forest undergrowth, researchers said on Wednesday. The birds use leaves and plant stems to create an array of …

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is unlikely to give in to the government’s demand of transferring funds that was set aside for contingency reserves in 2016-17 and 2017-18, according to sources.A total of Rs. 27,330 crore — Rs. 13,140 crore in FY17 and Rs. 14,190 crore in FY18 — …

Leading steel wheels manufacturer Wheels India Ltd. has posted an 18.28% rise in net profit for the third quarter ended December 2018 to Rs. 15.27 crore compared to Rs. 12.91 crore registered in the corresponding year-earlier period. Revenues rose 32.77% to Rs. 786 crore, from Rs. 592 crore. “There was …

The Cabinet has approved the setting up of a unified authority that would regulate all the financial services in International Financial Services Centres (IFSC), such as the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) in Gandhinagar. This is to be done through the International Financial Services Centres Authority Bill, 2019. An IFSC …

The fiduciary responsibility of the RBI’s board members lies with the central bank, its Governor Shaktikanta Das is learnt to have said. Mr. Das, who took charge in December, had made the remark while interacting with other board members during the farewell of his predecessor Urjit Patel in a South …

In the State of the Union address, President presses hishard line on immigration, says he will get the wall built Speaking words of bipartisanship, U.S. President Donald Trump delivered a State of the Union (SOTU) address that suggested he would continue to pursue policies that have most deeply divided the …

Road and air traffic between Jammu and Kashmir and the rest of the country was suspended on Wednesday due to heavy snowfall across the Valley, officials said. Of the 27 flights scheduled to arrive at the Srinagar Airport, 15 have been cancelled due to low visibility and incessant snowfall, an …

A senior Finance Ministry official has slammed a key plank of the government’s agriculture policy, saying that raising minimum support prices (MSP) for major crops causes distortions in the agriculture market. This leads to a vicious cycle of oversupply of such crops and a crash in market prices, said the …

India gains little by engaging the Taliban directly at this stage, says Amar Sinha , former Ambassador to Afghanistan and member of the National Security Advisory Board, countering Army chief General B.P. Rawat’s call for India to ‘join the bandwagon’ in talks. On Wednesday, a two-day ‘intra-Afghan’ dialogue of Afghan …

The Union Home Ministry has banned the Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen (TuM) under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for promoting terrorism and radicalising and recruiting youth for terrorist activities in India. Set up in the 1990s, TuM claims to be fighting for the “liberation of Kashmir,” the Ministry said in a notification announcing …

Protests by Opposition parties on issues such as the National Register for Citizens and a cut in faculty positions for SC/ST and OBC candidates ensured that the Rajya Sabha functioned only for a total 11 minutes on Wednesday. Soon after official papers were tabled in the morning, Rajya Sabha Chairman …