Prime Minister Narendra Modi is addressing the nation for the seventh time from the ramparts of the Red Fort on Independence Day on Saturday and it will be his second speech of the second term in office.
The agriculture sector is likely to grow in the range of 5.2-5.7 per cent in 2013-14, nearly three times more than the last year as good monsoon has raised the prospects of bumper harvest, a CACP discussion paper said.
From NITI Aayog to industry leaders to the Reserve Bank of India, all are apprehensive that any major increase in MSP, following the 2018-19 Budget announcements, would push up prices, if not immediately, in the next six to eight months after the decision is taken.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday tabled the pre-Budget Economic Survey in the Lok Sabha.
Hazare said he was giving the government six months time till August to come good on its assurance and warned that his protest will again begin in September if the demands were not met.
In April, RBI had projected retail inflation to be around 5 per cent.
'It is a national shame that the only country that enacted a food security act is now better known as the land of farmer suicides. Indian farming can change only if national irrigation policy is implemented in totality,' Dr M S Swaminathan tells Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com
India's leading national commodity exchanges have asked the government to immediately lift the ban on futures trading on certain agricultural commodities.
The poll results will depend much on whether the caste and community coalition worked out by Akhilesh can withstand the onslaught of the Hindutva forces who have increased their efforts to polarise the electorate on communal lines.
To curb rising food prices, the Union government is contemplating using large-scale nuclear irradiation technologyfor increasing the shelf life of fruit and vegetables, particularly that of onions and potatoes.
The NDA candidate tells the Election Commission that the Maoists plan to kidnap him.
Rural India was left to fend for itself by those who ruled the country earlier, Modi said in a swipe at the Congress.
While reforms may translate into new opportunities for firms like ITC, Adani Wilmar and Reliance Retail, farmers are unlikely to use it for fear of upsetting commission agents.
Hazare, 81, had started his indefinite fast on January 30 over appointment of anti-corruption watchdogs.
The initiative would provide double the relief announced by the states of UP and Maharashtra, the Punjab CM said.
Though three crops of onions are raised in a year - early kharif, late kharif and rabi - their harvests are not evenly spread out.
A five-seven per cent agriculture growth in 2013-14 would mean farming might exceed the 12th Five-Year Plan annual growth target of four per cent, if the trend continues.
This is bound to create more trouble for the Centre on the wheat front.
'The corporate sector says by 2022 they will create 300 million jobs.' 'In the last 70 years we didn't do it, how will we do it in 5 years?' 'Only agriculture can bail out the economy. Unfortunately, it is not being looked into.'
Campaigning came to an end on Saturday for the single-day election in Uttarakhand and Goa, two states known for political volatility where the Bharatiya Janata Party is attempting to retain power, and for the second phase of assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh on February 14.
The India Pulses and Grains Association estimates production of kharif pulses at seven mt this year.
Officials in the weather department said the monsoon is expected to be below normal because of the El-Nino effect.
Agri experts are meeting FinMin ministry officials on Monday to give their inputs on the Budget.
The reason behind issuing new bank licences is to allow more private sector entities to set up banks
The minimum support price for the rabi season will not radically alter the falling trajectory of farm incomes
"This is not a farmers' agitation, this is Congress' agitation," he said.
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.
NITI Aayog spent a considerable time on restructuring the setup.
'Why did government not include a provision in the bills which categorically stated that no crop will be sold below the MSP in the open market?'
The provision of consultation with the states has further created confusion on MSP
The World Bank said improved infrastructure, specifically rural electrification, has had far-ranging effects
'The protesters took out a march carrying black flags. They burnt Prime Minister Narendra Modi's effigy while raising slogans against the three farm laws'
This race among parties to woo the farmers mainly stems from the analysis of political pundits that the peasant class played a crucial role in the defeat of the BJP in Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh.
Sugarcane, which is grown by no more than 1.1 million farmers, consumes 70 per cent of water available in Maharashtra for irrigation. In contrast, about 10 million jowar, pulses and oilseeds farmers get only 10 per cent of irrigation water, points out Abhishek Waghmare.
'Till the time the Modi government is ruling, they will write off loans of corporates and give opportunities to rogue businessmen to run away, so we will have to come again and again on the roads to demand our just rights.'
Chouhan met some farmer leaders on Saturday, but failed to reach a compromise.
Agricultural incomes can be taxed without hurting farmers, as a substantial section - the small and marginal ones - will remain outside the tax net simply because their incomes are likely to be below the basic exemption limit of Rs 250,000 per annum that is extended to all taxpayers in India, finds out Ishan Bakshi.
The decision, taken by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, comes less than a year before next general election.
'What is bank recapitalisation? When the rich take loans and do not return and the government returns that money to the banks.' 'What is restructuring 5:25 scheme? The government says don't return now, just tell us you will return after five years.' 'Why don't we apply these schemes to farmers?' 'I want to increase the power of farmers to blackmail the government as everyone in the country has the power to blackmail.'
Shetti said the SSS had committed a "grave mistake" by extending support to the NDA.
