WPI inflation even breached psychological level of 0% in Nov.
Whether it took the corona crisis to bring about the transformation, or otherwise, the change ought to be welcome, notes Virendra Kapoor.
Uttar Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party's working committee member Ram Iqbal Singh on Thursday said there would have been no agitation by farmers had the Centre consulted them before enacting the new agricultural laws.
The concept of gold as an asset capable of getting anytime money is evaporating.
Attacking critics, he said a "clique" of people exploited farmers for long as they remained in shackles of rules regulating the sale of their produce and stated that this needed to change, which his government has done.
In MP, farmers say sales under new 'Sauda Patrak' method below MSP; Haryana mustard farmers wait for their turn to sell. The annual purchases of major rabi crops in North India largely wheat, mustard and also chana to some extent have been delayed as most cereal mandis were closed in the aftermath of the nationwide coronavirus lockdown.
Significantly, about half of the CEOs who took part in the survey indicated that they propose to increase their investments in near future, 45 per cent cited no change in investment levels, while only 5 per cent expected a fall.
The prime minister held a meeting with chief ministers via video-conferencing, and said it was imperative to work on war footing, identify hotspots, encircle them and ensure that coronavirus does not spread out.
The government has also announced a slew of measures to ease cash flow for the rural sector.
India achieved record foodgrains production this year but the withdrawal of three agri-reform laws and spike in cooking oil prices cast a shadow on the country's resilient agriculture sector that is on course for better harvest in 2022 despite pandemic blues. While soaring production of foodgrains that also helped the government provide free additional rations for COVID-hit poor families for many months together came as a relief, the passing year will be remembered for the long drawn farmers' protest at Delhi borders against the three laws and subsequent repeal of the legislations. The Indian agriculture sector, which was among the few segments that remained robust amid the pandemic gales, is expected to register a growth rate of 3.5 per cent in the current financial year ending March 2022.
Against varying claims its SGF ranged from Rs 839 crore (Rs 8.39 billion) to Rs 62 crore (Rs 620 million), between July 29 and August 14, the bourse had Rs 84.66 lakh (Rs 8.46 million) in the actual SGF.
The development came a day after the protesting farmers rejected the Centre's offer to start talks as soon as they move to Burari and continued to stay put Singhu and Tikri borders of the national capital.
States need to create alternative marketing structures for farm produce since middlemen also provide vital services that are otherwise unavailable to the farmer.
Union leaders, who came out of the meeting venue shouting slogans, said the talks remained deadlocked and some of them threatened to boycott any further meetings if no solution was found at Thursday's meeting.
In the third of a six-part series, Business Standard travels through diamond and textile units in Surat to assess the impact of demonetisation.
Worried about the adverse impact that price rise could cause to Congress' prospects in Lok Sabha polls, Rahul Gandhi unveiled quick fix policy prescriptions for 12 party-ruled states including reform in PDS and giving farmers a wider choice to sell vegetables and fruits.
'To bring about a paradigm shift in farmers's income, we need to change our approach to agriculture, and transit from the narrow prism of cultivation to a full-fledged enterprise, by building all associated supply chain linkages.' 'This alone will make the farmer an entrepreneur in his own right.'
With almost all opposition parties and several trade unions backing the 'Bharat Bandh' and many announcing parallel protests in support of the farmers, the Centre has issued an advisory directing all the states and Union Territories to tighten security and ensure COVID guidelines are followed.
Let the implementation of reforms be left to the discretion of individual states and ensure an end to the illogical stir, argues Virendra Kapoor.
The remarks of the apex court, which also said there is a 'peculiar lack of comprehension' about constitution of a panel, assumes importance as some of the members of the recently constituted committee to resolve the deadlock between farmers and the centre over the farm laws had earlier reportedly expressed their views on the subject.
With almost all opposition parties too backing the 'Bharat bandh' and many announcing parallel protests in support of the farmers, the Centre has issued an advisory directing the states and Union Territories to tighten security and ensure peace is maintained.
The new bill will now be introduced in the Lok Sabha for passage in the upcoming Winter session of Parliament beginning November 29.
Younger party leaders are livid with the Murli Manohar Joshi-headed manifesto drafting committee for not taking their suggestions, reports Archis Mohan.
Rajya Sabha took up the discussion on The Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020 and The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill that have already been passed by Lok Sabha.
The high-level panel also asked the government to work towards re-orienting subsidies in a targeted manner from the crop sector to the non-crop sector and redesign the electronic National Agriculture Market.
Barring stray incidents of violence like stone pelting, the shutdown called by the MVA allies Shiv Sena, the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party was largely peaceful.
The farmer leaders said they are not willing to participate in any proceedings before a committee appointed by the Supreme Court, but a formal decision on this will be taken by the Morcha.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India Sharad Arvind Bobde will hear the application on January 18 along with pleas raising the issue of farmers protesting at Delhi borders.
Prime Minister Modi has certainly pulled back, and his political capital -- dependent as it is on an image that he knows best and never retreats -- may have taken a bit of a beating. But, equally, it is hard to say that the protesters have 'won', argues Mihir S Sharma.
The agriculture minister said the government's constant efforts are aimed at making farmers prosperous by increasing their income.
The Bhartiya Kisan Union Lokshakti said the principle of natural justice is going to be violated as those appointed to the four-member committee 'have already supported these laws'.
In a tweet, the prime minister's office said, Modi has approved an ex gratia of Rs. 2 lakh each from the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund for the kin of those who have lost their lives.
In her four-page resignation letter addressed to the prime minister, she said, 'In view of the decision of the government of India to go ahead with the Bill on the issue of marketing of agricultural produce without addressing and removing the apprehensions of farmers and decision of my party, Shiromani Akali Dal, not to be a part of anything that goes against the interest of farmers, I find it impossible to continue to perform my duties as a minister in the union council of ministers.'
Addressing a press conference at Singhu Border in New Delhi, farmer leader Balbeer Singh Rajewal said that farmers never demanded the Supreme Court form a committee to resolve the impasse, alleging the central government was behind this development.
Binu Alex, co-founder and editorial director of www.commodityonline.com, in an interview to Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com, says demand-supply imbalance arising out of the government's inability to preserve the crop for non-harvesting season is the root cause behind the price rise.
The two bills -- Farmer's Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 -- were passed by Lok Sabha on Thursday.
Since a Supreme Court-appointed panel on farm laws is likely to hold its first meeting on January 19, the meeting on Friday between with the government and the unions may be the last one.
Sharad Pawar reckons that the NCP has value as a united, going concern, not as a gaggle of leaders in search of followers, notes Shreekant Sambrani.
Ghanwat, also a senior leader of Shetkari Sangathan, said he will mobilise one lakh farmers and bring them to Delhi in the next couple of months demanding farm reforms.
Thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab and Haryana, are protesting at various borders of the national capital for more than a month against the laws and are demanding that these be repealed.
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