Can disparity in futures prices at two prime commodity exchanges in the country hold pepper trade to ransom?
The Congress chief said if his party is elected to power, its government would spend 6 per cent of the GDP on education.
Right to apprenticeship, legal guarantee for MSP, passing a constitutional amendment to raise the 50 per cent cap on reservations for SCs, STs and OBCs, a nation-wide caste census and scrapping of Agnipath scheme are among the promises made by the Congress in its Lok Sabha polls manifesto released on Friday.
The incident that came to light on Saturday came days after a farmer was beaten up by the police in the state over non-payment of loan.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday stepped up its protest against Rahul Gandhi for his 'panauti' jibe against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and urged the Election Commission to take action against the Congress leader.
Shetti said the SSS had committed a "grave mistake" by extending support to the NDA.
The ruling Congress is seeking to retain power in Chhattisgarh by banking on the welfare schemes of the Bhupesh Baghel government, while the Bharatiya Janata Party is hoping to corner it on the issues of alleged corruption, religious conversions and unfulfilled poll promises.
'Commentators have said that dealing with allies as equals will make Modi more sensitive.' 'Remember that the people Modi is dealing with are equally autocratic in their own lairs.' 'Further, Modi always has handy the threat of dissolving Parliament and calling for fresh polls.' 'Most of his own party, and certainly his allies and opponents having blown their budgets of efforts and resources in the just concluded elections, have no stomach for this.' 'They are all greatly looking forward to the loaves and fishes of office on offer.' 'That gives Modi an unbeatable advantage in any push-comes-to-shove situation,' explains Shreekant Sambrani.
'Four years into his tenure and Modi still has no idea what is wrong with the agriculture sector!'
The manifesto said that loans of poor farmers and farm labourers will be waived off and loans of SCs and BCs will also be waived off.
The committee, headed by former agriculture secretary Sanjay Agrawal, discussed ways to "promote zero budget based farming", to "change" crop patterns keeping in mind the changing needs of the country, and to make MSP more "effective and transparent".
2019 was the Bharatiya Janata Party's breakout year, when it stretched the boundaries of what was thought possible and ended up with 303 seats on its own steam. Now it is forced to play defence, on a pitch queered by too many variables, asserts Prem Panicker.
The government has readied a big legislative agenda for the Monsoon Session of Parliament beginning Monday even as the Opposition is raring to corner the ruling dispensation over a host of issues, including handling of the second wave of COVID-19, rise in fuel prices and farmers' stir.
Voters include 8.4 crore men, 8.23 crore women and 11,371 from third gender. There are as many as 35.67 lakh first time voters, besides 3.51 crore young voters in the age group of 20-29 years.
In her first address to a joint sitting of the two Houses in the new Parliament building in which she touched on varied issues ranging from insurgency to inflation, Murmu said a country can progress at a fast pace only when it defeats the challenges of the past and puts maximum energy into building the future.
Indications are that the DMK combine will win more seats than the AIADMK and BJP, but is facing a tough fight in about half a dozen from the rest, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy of the electoral contest in Tamil Nadu.
The resentment against the government has increased.
'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.'
Kerala's election discourse operates surreptitiously. Its explicit face focuses on important national and local issues. At the same time, it seeks to secure apt communal equations to ensure votes, notes Shyam G Menon.
'Modigate is snowballing into a huge thing with the electorate. The BJP is in for huge punishment by the electorate.'
Pawar said, "I will meet PM Narendra Modi on July 18. During the meeting, I will take up various issues related to farmers with him. (NCP leader) Praful Patel and I will attend the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) meeting."
The Congress, referring to Gandhi's speech at a campaign rally at Hubballi on Saturday, said in a tweet that the Congress Parliamentary Party Chairperson "sends a strong message to 6.5 crore Kannadigas,' and also posted pictures of her speaking at the public meeting.
This time Modi has no emotive message to take to the stump. Muscular nationalism doesn't work against the backdrop of China's successive inroads into Indian territory. Rising prices is a sore point that cuts across class and caste barriers; unprecedented levels of unemployment has the youth in a ferment. This has reduced the BJP campaign to a laundry list of recycled grievances and thinly veiled communal appeals, neither of which are working as well as they have in the past, argues Prem Panicker.
In view of the volatile situation, the Centre rushed 1,100 personnel of anti-riot Rapid Action Force.
Economist Abhijit Sen, a former Planning Commission member and one of the country's foremost experts on rural economy, died on Monday night. He was 72.
There are concerns within the Congress with respect to the articulation of the party's demand for the caste census, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently accusing the grand old party of attempting to divide Hindus through its push for the Other Backward Classes.
Livelihoods and lives are being destroyed in the name of building a 'better' India, writes Congress leader Sachin Pilot, in an exclusive column for Rediff.com.
It also promised financial assistance of Rs 24,000 annually to all dependent widows and single mothers, two free LPG cylinders to all the beneficiaries of the PM Ujjwala Yojana and 24x7 power supply.
'We don't trust the prime minister's words on repealing the laws because he had promised us that he will implement the Swaminathan Commission report, but he never did.'
The government's agenda also includes the Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress remain the most dominant political forces in Chhattisgarh, though the state has several regional outfits that have pockets of influence, while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is making a determined bid to challenge its well entrenched rivals and make a mark in polls to the 90-member House.
Here's the full text of address to the nation by President Ram Nath Kovind on the eve of the Republic Day 2022.
The government's annual Economic Survey on Friday strongly defended new farm laws, saying they herald a new era of market freedom which can go a long way in improving lives of small and marginal farmers in India. These legislations were designed "primarily" for the benefit of "small and marginal farmers", which constitute around 85 per cent of the total number of farmers and are the biggest sufferer of the "regressive" APMC-regulated market regime, the survey said. The pre-budget document defended the farm laws in the backdrop of long-running farmers' agitation at various borders of the national capital seeking repeal of these legislations expressing concern that they are pro-corporate and could weaken government regulated mandis, also called Agriculture Produce Marketing Committees (APMCs).
States need to create alternative marketing structures for farm produce since middlemen also provide vital services that are otherwise unavailable to the farmer.
Two pleas were filed in the Supreme Court on Wednesday over the tractor rally violence on Republic Day, with one seeking the setting up of a commission, headed by a retired apex court judge, to inquire into the incident, while the other urged it to direct the media not to declare farmers as "terrorist" without any evidence.
Mandsaur, the epicentre of the agitation, has remained relatively peaceful even as farmer protests have spilled over to new areas of MP.
Attacking the Congress government, the BJP claimed there is no rule of law in Rajasthan and the incident has put a question mark on the law and order situation of the state.
Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh said he still stands by his statement that he will hang himself if even one of the allegation against him is proven to be true.
The government should set up a dedicated fund to rescue Indian agriculture.
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