SMART CARDS PART III
Rakesh Prakash & Bishnu Dash / Bangalore/bhubaneswar September 03, 2008, 1:16 IST
Farm workers swiping biometric cards to receive their daily wages is all set to become a reality in Orissa and Karnataka villages. Both states are ready to distribute smart cards to ensure transparency in the disbursal of social security pension and payment of wages under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme.
Nagesh Prabhu BANGALORE: With monsoon becoming weak and drought looming large over Karnataka, the government has extended the weather-based crop insurance scheme to five more districts, covering 12 crops this kharif season.
The 24/7 water supply in the demonstration zones of Belgaum, Hubli-Dharwad has received a positive response from the consumers, according to officials. Here is a bitter pill to swallow for the NGOs which have been vehemently protesting a private agency handling the operation and maintenance of water supply in four cities of North Karnataka.
In the next few weeks the Karnataka government will begin deliberating on the future of Chamalapura, a tiny hamlet near Mysore, and its surroundings. According to highly placed sources in the state's energy department, feasibility studies will be commissioned soon for setting up a coal-fired thermal power plant in and around the village.
In 2002-2004, Karnataka's S.M. Krishna government blamed farmers' suicides on alcoholism and gambling. This time around, the authorities cannot ignore the bitter harvest and its aftermath. In Bidar district alone, 48 farmers have killed themselves since July 2006. All of them were sugarcane cultivators. .News of suicides is trickling in from Gulbarga, Gadag, Mandya and Chamarajanagar.
Japan's environment ministry is drafting a law that would require owners of "potentially dangerous animals, such as crocodiles and pythons,' to have microchips implanted in their pets. The cylindrical chips, about a centimetre-long, would carry information that would enable the authorities to trace the owners if the pets go missing.
Mahesh Kulkarni / Bangalore September 1, 2010, 0:38 IST
For the first time after settling their family dispute and withdrawing the non-compete clause in May, brothers Mukesh and Anil Ambani are again competing face-to-face, in a bid for the Rs 7,500-crore, 1,320-Mw thermal power project at Gulbarga in north Karnataka.
''The State government has taken up measures to eliminate the power crisis thereby facilitating all the rural areas with uninterrupted power supply,'' said Energy Minister K S Eshwarappa.
The US-based Clinton Foundation has evinced interest in setting up solar farms to generate 5,000 mw power under public private partnership model, in the State.
