At present, 100 days of work is provided to rural job card holders under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).
The move came a day after Parliament approved two agriculture sector-reform bills which have been bitterly opposed by the opposition parties like Congress and TMC.
People normally pray for good rain. But in a few villages of Chhattisgarh this year, it is a different story.
Eleven per cent increase in post-monsoon rain and new farm technologies are likely to more than make up for drought-hit kharif crop and result in a bumper grain production of about 220 million tonnes in 2004-05
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com lists 11 Modi flagship schemes that may have been gamechangers in the Lok Sabha election.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday decided to leave the benchmark interest rate unchanged at 4 per cent but maintained an accommodative stance, implying rate cuts in the future if need arises to support the economy hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said on Thursday onion prices will ease in the next two-three weeks as fresh output arrives from Maharashtra and other states, providing relief to consumers.
'I would want people to have food on their tables and their wages to rise.' 'Will that happen or not is the question that we need to ask and answer.'
"Manmohan Singh Ji (former Prime Minister) tried many times but could not do. Today when it is implemented, propaganda is being spread," Tomar said.
Modi said "timing" is very important to deal with any crisis and "decisions taken at the right time have helped a lot in controlling the coronavirus infection in the country".
The Reserve Bank of India on Thursday raised its inflation projection to 5.1-4.7 per cent for the second half of the current fiscal on the back of spike in prices of vegetables such as onion and tomatoes.
He said the government would provide meal at Rs 10 to common citizens and build a super-speciality hospital in every district of the state.
According to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research Director General Trilochan Mohapatra, the insects have attacked about 40,000 hectares of land.
The decision will help farmers earn an additional income of Rs 62,635 crore
The government on Thursday said based on the current monsoon situation, India's foodgrains output may rise by 29 per cent to 115 million tonnes.
On reforms in pipeline, she said the government is for universal right to minimum wages and wants to remove regional disparity through a national floor wage.
Around 40 per cent of the country is staring at drought-like conditions ahead of the monsoon as water levels have receded sharply.
In its Fifth Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Statement, 2017-18, RBI said the second quarter growth was lower than the one that was projected in the October review, and the recent increase in oil prices may have a negative impact on margins of firms and Gross Value Added (GVA) growth.
Last month, the agriculture ministry had projected 10 per cent fall in kharif foodgrains production at 117.18 million tonnes in view of poor rains and drought in more than 360 taluks in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Gujarat.
The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy on Tuesday said industrial production growth is likely to decline in the second half of the current fiscal, while the first advanced estimate of kharif crop showed a 10 per cent drop in food production.\n\n\n\n
The rains have so far been four per cent below normal.
These five stocks, which have lagged the markets over the last two years, have doubled in value since March 23.
NCDEX benchmark index up 10% over a month, as expectations on sowing gather pace
Scenario is precarious for urad with almost half the crop damaged in major growing states, tur quota of 400,000 tonnes already exhausted.
The wider NSE Nifty too fell by 20.15 points or 0.19 per cent to end at 10,749.75.
Shortage of seeds, threat of El Nino expected to restrict sowing.
Centre releases Rs1,712cr to TN, Rs 1,234cr to Karnataka for drought.
As the kharif sowing season exceeds two months, no crop has managed to reach the normal area of cultivation (average of the past five years), except for sugarcane, cotton and jute.
As of now, monsoon rains are deficient by 21 per cent across India, affecting sowing of kharif crops. Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab and West Rajasthan have been the worst-hit regions this year.
Prices of essential commodities, including foodgrains, have surged 8-10 per cent in just three days, because of deficient rains and on concerns that the farm output this kharif season would be hit badly.
As the southwest monsoon continues to narrow its overall deficit, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Wednesday exuded confidence that the dreaded El Nino weather pattern was unlikely to affect monsoon rains this year.
Because of late monsoon, arrival of kharif (summer) onion crops would be delayed by a month in key growing areas of Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, threatening to push up prices in the late September and October.
On one hand Karnataka Agriculture Minister Umesh Katti, Water Resources Minister Basavaraj Bommai and Rural Development Minister Jagadish Shettar are plotting the fall of Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda, while on the other hand the state continues to reel under drought with 123 taluks declared as drought hit.
This could be the reason why Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned tomato, onion, and potato as his government's 'TOP' priority, in an election rally on February 5 in poll-bound Karnataka.
The cost of production of onion is around 800-900 per quintal, while prices are hovering around 500 per quintal across major wholesale markets.
Vegetable arrivals at mandis, especially in Maharashtra, have declined by more than 50 per cent since the beginning of the month.
The rains in August have also led to speculation that if the trend continues, rains in September, the terminal month of the four-month monsoon season, could be better, thus aiding production of paddy and other kharif crops.
