Amid depleting resources and rising global prices of soil nutrients, the fertiliser ministry has proposed a sovereign wealth fund (SWF) of $1 billion to acquire such assets abroad.

GUWAHATI, April 26 – The declaration of tea as the National Drink of India is long overdue as no other drink can come even closer to tea in the country, observed the chairman of the Tea Board, MGVK

The government will soon set up a technical group to revisit the norms for estimating poverty.

The government’s decision to switch to a new royalty formula for coal would erode the benefit currently available to captive coal miners by way of reduced royalty rates. At the same time, it would increase state governments’ royalty collection multi-fold.

As captive miners do not engage in any sale, these currently pay royalty to states as a percentage of the sale price realised at the nearest Coal India mine. This arrangement benefits captive miners, as Coal India (CIL) prices are 70-80 per cent lower than those of international benchmarks.

The contentious issue of India’s poverty estimates is all set to get a relook, with the government informing the Lok Sabha on Wednesday that it will soon be appointing a technical group to “revisit” this matter.

The government also told the House that the expert panel will be constituted and its terms of reference finalised in the next two or three weeks. It assured the House that if necessary, it will “revisit the indicators for determining poverty”.

Chandigarh : Following discussions with top officials of the state government in New Delhi, the Planning Commission today approved a draft Annual Plan (2012-13) for Rs 12,800 crore.

West Bengal Chief Minister sought refinancing for 18,000-km PMGSY roads

Aggravating the face-off between the Congress and the Trinamool Congress, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has shot down West Bengal's demand for financing anew 18,000 km of murram (red sand) roads under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY).

New Delhi: The government is thinking of letting the states cherry pick the central schemes for rural welfare, a step back from centralized decision-making that it hopes could help quell the accusa

VADODARA: Your morning cup of tea would not fire up your sleepy senses without a little milk in it, and yet a debate has been stirred up on what should be India's national drink - tea or milk.

On Saturday, deputy chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia announced in Jorhat, the tea capital of India, that tea will be given that place of pride by April next year.

Annual plan for Kerala was fixed at Rs 14,010 crore for the year 2012-13 on Friday at a meeting between Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Chief Minister of Kerala, Oom