On the eve of country’s 61st Independence Day, the UPA government under the leadership of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sanctioned a wage hike higher than the recommendations of Sixth Pay Commission for the country’s civil and defence staff.

After the meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister made the announcement that there would be an average increase of 21 per cent in salaries of over 50 lakh government employees with effect from January 1, 2006.

Washington, Aug. 16 : India could lose between seven and seventeen percent of its income from farming because of climate change, a new study has claimed.

Using data on weather and the economic success of farming to model the effect of future warming on the predicted income from farming, Robert Mendelsohn of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and Apurva Sanghi of the World Bank said that the focus of their study was on the biological relationship between weather and crop yield instead of the economic connection between weather and farming revenue.

Industry associations stated that the acceptance of proposals of the 6th Pay Commission would help in pulling as well as retaining the best talent in the government’s administrative machinery.

Moreover, it would lessen the degree of weariness in public sector departments and make government more reactive towards the public. At the same time, industry chambers fear that the move would worsen fiscal pressures.

The Union Cabinet on Aug 14 accepted the suggestions of the Sixth Central Pay Commission with some changes hinted by the Secretaries board.

With this, the pay of around 50 lakh government staff will climb up by at least 21%.

The wholesale index-based inflation rate is further increased to 12.44 per cent. It was recorded 12.01 per cent in the previous week. The inflation rate was 4.39 per cent in the corresponding period in 2007. The growing rates of food, fruits and fuel prices have contributed in the increased inflation rate.

The prices of fruits increased by 8.9 per cent for the week ended August 2. The prices of maize, moong, urad and other spice went up by 4 per cent and 3 percent respectively. The prices of textile and cement were also increased during this week.

Due to the gross domestic product growth, which has already put an end to the three year of growth that was in the range of 9%, the high prices will not come down soon. The fact was reveled today by the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (EAC).

The EAC’s forecast is lower than RBI’s forecast of 8 percent estimate. It is also in line with several other forecasts that have estimated growth at between 7.5 and 8% in 2008-09.

“I am confident the GDP growth will be close to 8 per cent this year,” as said by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, when he was asked to comment on the present state of EAC forecast.