The economy may grow by around 7 per cent this financial year as estimated by the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), say economists with various organisations. The first advance estimates for 2023-24 will be released on Friday by the National Statistical Organisation (NSO), an exercise done for calculating ratios such as the fiscal deficit. The interim Budget will be presented on February 1.
The government will amend the six-and-a-half-decade old Essential Commodities Act to deregulate food items, including cereals, edible oil, oilseeds, pulses, onion and potato, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday. The amendment, besides deregulating production and sale of food products, will provide for no stock limit to be imposed on any produce.
In a pre-budget meeting with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, the experts suggested timely implementation of the BJP's election manifesto promises to fix higher support prices. They also favoured a Kissan TV channel, an efficient procurement policy, priority for farm mechanisation and the linking of rivers.
Speaking at the 65th general council meeting of the National Cooperative Development Corporation, Pawar said the total availability of agricultural credit had doubled in the last three years.
Even as the bilateral relationship between the two neighbouring countries remains hostile, there is growing coordination between India and Pakistan on one multilateral forum - the World Trade Organization (WTO). Both countries have made two joint submissions at the WTO as co-sponsors in the past two months. In June, Pakistan joined India, Cuba, and 44 African countries, seeking sufficient flexibility in intellectual property rights for developing countries to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.
The government has identified nine key focus areas in the AI national programme, including agriculture, education, Indian languages, smart cities, cybersecurity, transportation, and finance.
President Ram Nath Kovind addressed the nation on the eve of India's 75th Independence Day. Here's the text of what he said:
Nearly a third of an average Indian citizen's consumption budget is spent on food.
In April, RBI had projected retail inflation to be around 5 per cent.
Advisory in this regard was issued by the Gujarat government three days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes.
Pressure is on India to eliminate duties on sectors like auto, pharma, chemicals, electronics, gems and jewellery for giving developed nations real market access.
The Left leader said the NCERT, which was set up on the basis of the 2005 National Curriculum Framework, has been demolishing the very goals of the NCF through the removal of such passages from textbooks.
The formula for success of farm economy is very simple -- farmers should be able to produce more from the same piece of land at reduced cost while minimising risk and be connected to market to get higher realisation for their produce, points out Siraj Chaudhry.
The minister said this underlying resentment and pain of those countries regarding the global economy was building up for the last 15-20 years and the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine conflict resulted in prices of energy and food items going up.
Cooperatives have demanded the abolishment of income tax on theirs as well as the state cooperative banks' earnings failing which they would resort to agitations across the country.
"On space, we will be able to announce that India is signing the Artemis Accords, which advance a common vision for space exploration for the benefit of all humankind," a senior administration official said hours before the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden in the Oval Office.
Loan waivers will never be enough. Reforming the agricultural marketing system is essential to addressing the concerns of farmers in a sustainable manner, says Nitin Desai.
As per the NCERT, the decision has been taken to reduce the content load on students in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Onion prices crashed to Rs 5-20 a kg in wholesale markets of the national capital on Tuesday on the back of improved supply, but retail prices of the vegetable remain high at Rs 40 per kg.
In 2018, Mr Chouhan became chief minister for the fourth time with some support from Mr Scindia. This time, nothing can be said with any certainty.
'The policy is to consolidate farming into the hands of a few and to take away the food security of the country.' 'Once food is in the hands of 15 chosen corporate houses, you will get food, but at a price that they determine.'
Kiran Vissa, co-convenor of National Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, said that amendments to the EC Act have nothing to do with farmers' welfare but instead meant to please big players and agriculture companies. This is because small and marginal farmers don't have the storage capacity to attract provisions of the EC Act.
The government was going in the "wrong direction" and it was "highly condemnable" that it did not discuss the proposed changes with trade unions and other stakeholders, says BMS, trade union arm of the RSS.
'We will be hoisting the tiranga, but this kind of celebration is uncalled for when the farmers in this country are dying by suicides, their families are ravaged by poverty and farmers are not enjoying any freedom.'
'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.'
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.
A large car caravan of protesters from various parts of California blocked the traffic on the Bay Bridge on Saturday as they moved towards the Indian Consulate in San Francisco, while several hundreds gathered in downtown Indianapolis.
5G ambulances will not just allow remote consultation, but would also be able to transit data and video to hospitals in real time, saving precious time for critical patients. 5G technology would also support the development of new educational applications, improve agriculture productivity, and aid search and rescue missions with high resolution cameras in disaster recovery zones.
'You know the kind of force involved in all of this. They are not good for the country where all of this will happen.'
Releasing the manifesto titled 'Badlav Ka Sankalp' (commitment to change) in the presence of All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala and other Mahagathbandhan leaders, Tejashwi Yadav said their government, if elected, would first approve the process for appointments on about 10 lakh jobs in the government.
India has agreed to allow import of pork and pork products from the US as a part of a bilateral trade deal which will facilitate export of Indian mangoes and pomegranate to the US. The development comes months after the two governments renewed the India US Trade Policy Forum (TPF), after which both nations agreed to iron out thorny issues that included market access issues pertaining to the agriculture sector.
The most immediate challenge for growth is the disruption of the global economy brought about by the Ukraine war and related sanctions, the Covid shutdowns in China and the rising tide of inflation, points out Nitin Desai.
People in the know said plans were afoot to begin the sale of all food grains through online, with a major quantity through auctions that would be later extended to other commodities.
National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation, the central government's procurement agency for non-cereal crops, is in talks with leading retail companies to serve as a back-end supply chain in agri-commodities.
India has put curbs on wheat exports through the government route, starting November last year. This comes amid a surge in domestic prices of the cereal. In December, India exported 391 tonnes of wheat to Bangladesh and Bhutan. In November 2022, it had exported 375 tonnes of wheat only to Bhutan.
Critics argue that much more could have been done and that the government was slow to react to many events.
Concerned over skyrocketing prices of onion due to supply scare in the market, government on Monday decided to import onions from China and Pakistan to tide over the crisis.
Data shows that the current system of decentralised marketing and centralised procurement helps Punjab and Haryana farmers the most, while its efficacy in other states has been poor. Experts and farm leaders say success of the laws rests heavily on implementation.
Shaktikanta Das said in Washington, DC, that there was nothing sacrosanct about the 25 bps rate cut and that monetary policy could be well served by calibrating the size of the policy rate to the dynamics of the situation, and the size of the change itself could convey the stance of policy.
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