Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, who is also holding the Finance portfolio, today presented the Budget for the 2009-10 fiscal with a closing deficit of Rs 4615.11 crore. However, the Budget presented by Gogoi has proposed a number of sops for the industrial sector, particularly for the small scale and medium scale industries.

Development takes a backseat as states combat extreme weather spending on disaster management has exceeded spending on agriculture and rural development in some states. A World Bank report said extreme weather events like floods, cyclones and droughts forced Maharashtra, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh to spend more on relief and damages than on development schemes between 2002 and 2007.

Despite an accentuation of consumption inequality in recent years in Kerala, development in the social sector has been more or less equitable across districts. Kerala

Uttar Pradesh has suffered from regional disparities and inequality and even six decades after independence, some of the regions of this state are very backward and the abode of the largest proportion of poor in the country. The challenges raised by intra-regional disparities and their compounding implications on living conditions and governance are enormous.

This paper analyses the intra-state disparities in government expenditure in six states, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal, based on the actual treasury data on government expenditure made in the social sectors of education, health and supply of drinking water, captured from the databases of the accountants general of these states.

Much-needed CNG-powered buses will start plying on 40 designated routes in the city any time during the next financial year as the ground work for the launching of the scheme has been completed in all respects, according to well-placed city government officials.

Most global industrial companies that emit a lot of greenhouse gases are not adequately detailing their climate strategies in U.S. financial filings, two studies by environmental and investment groups showed on Wednesday.

Most global industrial companies that emit a lot of greenhouse gases are not adequately detailing their climate strategies in U.S. financial filings, two studies by environmental and investment groups showed on Wednesday.

The Norwegian government said on Wednesday it would assess the impact of climate change on financial markets and urged global investors to join forces.

The finance ministry will undertake the study in its role as owner of Norway's $350 billion sovereign wealth fund which invests the country's oil wealth in overseas stocks and bonds.

A Mexican proposal to raise billions of dollars to fight climate change is winning backing in talks on a new U.N. treaty, paradoxically because no one really likes it, a Mexican official said on Wednesday.

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