Amid the political blame game over Bengal's potato ban, which led to shortages in Jharkhand and Odisha, Uttar Pradesh farmers are the unlikely winners.
'It has also outlived its initial purpose of reducing physical gold imports.'
As RBI governor, Sanjay Malhotra will have to give the highest priority to the interest of the economy while deciding on the growth-inflation trade off at Mint Street.
It will be the second Budget of the Modi 3.0 government and eighth straight Budget for Nirmala Sitharaman, rare in Indian polity.
'Not paying workers enough will end up being self-destructive or harmful for the corporate sector itself.'
The cold wave days in December too are expected to be 'below-normal' this year.
A fresh survey to identify a minimum of eight million new beneficiaries of the flagship rural housing scheme, in addition to the 12 million already identified, will use the latest face-recognition tools to minimise gaps, a senior official said on Tuesday. The survey, which has already started across the country for building the fresh 20 million new rural houses over the next five years, can also be done by the beneficiary himself/herself as well through the Awaassoft mobile application specially created for this purpose.
Fewer people participated in MGNREGA during the first six months of this financial year (April-September) compared to the same period last year, a recent analysis of the scheme's performance by LibTech showed.
Tomato prices have been on the boil for more than a month. Data from major cities show that the spike has been between 125 and 150 per cent at the wholesale level. Soaring vegetable prices, including tomatoes, pushed the retail inflation rate to a nine-month high of 5.49 per cent in September, according to government data. Though reports say prices are expected to come down in the next few weeks after supplies improve from Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, how long will the respite last is anybody's guess.
Four big global companies - Bayer, GenZero (a wholly-owned arm of financial major Temasek), Shell and Mitsubishi - have decided to scale up their carbon credit programme in nine states to empower farmers. The credits are generated through the adoption of smart agriculture practices - Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) and Direct Seeded Rice (DSR). Since over a year, the project, which was being run on a pilot basis, has positively impacted 10,000 farmers, covering more than 25,000 hectares.
'We don't have to go abroad for anything.' 'Anyone who thinks we have a lot to learn from the US needs to have his head examined.' 'We are in a new era.'
India stares at the risk of an influx of Chinese products as US tariffs on a range of Chinese goods, including solar panels, electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries, syringes, and steel, are set to take effect from September 27. With higher tariffs reducing China's access to the US market, there is concern that China may divert its exports to other markets, including India, which could lead to potential dumping of goods. This situation could challenge Indian industries, particularly in sectors where competition with Chinese products is already fierce.
Gross Value Added (GVA) growth in agriculture and allied activities in the first quarter of the 2024-25 financial year (Q1FY25) dipped to 2.7 per cent at constant prices from 4.2 per cent in Q1FY24 due to a drop in output of some crops following heatwave in the main growing months. Low post-monsoon rains, which dried most of the reservoirs in several states across the country, also impacted the production of many crops. At current prices, the growth was estimated at 8.5 per cent as against 4.1 per cent in Q1FY24 due to a spike in food inflation during the April to June months of FY25.
'There will be 200 ITIs developed as hubs, while 800 will be developed as spoke, connected with five National Skill Training Institutes.'
With cotton still figuring in the list of commodities that are produced using practices such as child labour, the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) has entered into an understanding with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to create awareness, share technical know-how and knowledge about better labour standards. These standards, which are part of ILO Fundamental Principles and Rights to Work (FPRW), will be tried on a pilot basis in major cotton-growing districts of Madhya Pradesh for one year starting in 2024.
'Given our turbulent neighbourhood, the prime minister is likely to emphasise on democratic dividend as the reason behind India's continuous prosperity.'
After climbing to the highest level in more than five years to 4.7 million tonnes in FY24, India might import fewer quantities of pulses this financial year at 4-4.5 mt on the back of good monsoon and higher domestic production, Bimal Kothari, chairman of India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA), said in New Delhi on Friday. Kothari was addressing reporters on the sidelines of a seminar on pulses titled "Bharat Dalhan-2024".
The steep cut in Customs duty on silver in the FY25 Budget to 6 per cent from 15 per cent may provide the government temporary relief by checking the spurt in silver imports from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) under the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). In FY24, silver imports from the UAE jumped to $1.7 billion from only $11.18 million in FY23, according to commerce department data. In May, about 87 per cent of India's silver imports came from Dubai.
While Andhra Pradesh is expected to receive Rs 15,000 crore to Rs 20,000 crore, Bihar is likely to get Rs 5,000 crore to Rs 10,000 crore in FY25.
In what could come as a piece of good news, hunger in India - as measured by the Prevalence of Undernourishment (PoU) by the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) - has come down from 16.6 per cent of the population in the 2020-2022 to 13.7 per cent in 2021-23, the latest report on the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI 2024) showed. This means that around 39.3 million people have come out of undernourishment between the two periods, NITI Aayog member Ramesh Chand said on Tuesday.