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Tea planters in Darjeeling have raised that a shortage of commercial LPG, triggered by the ongoing conflict in West Asia, could hit tea processing during the first flush, the delicate early-season harvest that commands the highest premiums and often sets the tone for the year.
The recent flash floods and landslides triggered by heavy rain in north Bengal have caused massive destruction in at least 30-35 tea gardens in Darjeeling, with reports of loss of plantation areas, deaths of workers and damage to houses of labourers, prompting planters to convene a meeting to assess the situation, stakeholders said.
India, the land that gave the world Darjeeling and Assam tea, risks losing its place at the global tea table, not because of its leaves, but because of its lost opportunities, notes Kanika Datta.
This festive season, Indian homes are mixing global luxury with personal touches using heirloom fabrics, handmade decor, and nostalgic menus to create celebrations that feel both grand and intimate.
A tea garden owner was gunned down and his security guard was seriously injured by suspected National Democratic Front of Bodoland anti-talk faction insurgents in Assam's Sonitpur district on Tuesday.
Students at Ashoka University in Haryana are protesting against new security measures, including vehicle checks and prohibition on carrying cigarettes and alcohol on campus. The new protocols, reportedly outlined in a January 13 email by the varsity's Vice President of Operations, also include shifting student movement to another gate and submitting students to pocket checks. Students have criticised the measures as invasive and an overreach of authorities, demanding a roll-back.
The tea industry, hit by rising costs, falling prices and political unrest in the North Bengal plantations, is especially vulnerable to the COVID-19 lockdown.
The alpona (artwork) on the steep, winding road leading to Makaibari bears testimony to the visit of G20 delegates for the second tourism working group meeting in April last year. The lush tea bushes, the delegates joining in for the moonlight plucking of Silver Tips Imperial first flush, a favourite of late Queen Elizabeth II, cut a picture of mystical magic. But it's not the Kurseong tea garden's only shining moment - the last few years have been busy for the estate and its bungalow.
Colonel Billie Sodhi's life and family heritage reflect an unwavering commitment to excellence in polo, equestrian sports, and a rare, enduring athletic legacy.
The police on Monday announced Rs 10 lakh reward for information about the person who planted the bomb that killed a woman and injured three others outside a restaurant in Bengaluru on Sunday night.
Videos on social media showed protesters climbing a statue of Hasina's father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, a 1971 Liberation War hero, in Dhaka and smashing it with hammers.
As news of Hasina's departure spread, hundreds broke into Hasina's residence, vandalising and looting the interiors, providing dramatic expression to the anti-government protests that have killed more than 100 people in the last two days. At the centre of people anger is the Hasina government's controversial quota system reserving 30 per cent jobs for families of veterans who fought the 1971 liberation war. With volatile crowds taking to the streets -- some clambering on Hasina's father and Bangladesh founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's statue and smashing it with hammers in a lasting image underscoring the fickleness of history -- Army chief General Waqar-uz-Zaman announced that the 76-year-old prime minister has resigned.
Abrar Ahmed, suspected of planting bombs in the textile town of Malegaon that killed 31 people on September 8, was arrested on Saturday by the Anti-Terrorist Squad.
'We want to prove to the world that they will get the best code written from a small place like Wayanad.'
G20 delegates are in Mumbai, so the Maximum City has got hurriedly painted walls and makeover.
Planters from Assam said despite the Covid-19 pandemic, trade enquiries from China had been rising. However, owing to the growing conflict, enquiries may dry up. 'We have seen how the trade dried up in case of the Pakistan conflict and fear the same,' a planter from Assam said.
Tea planters and exporters are "extremely worried" over the possible impact on their shipments to Russia, India's second largest buyer of tea, in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Western sanctions and disruption of payments in dollars as well as transhipments to Russia are expected as a fall-out of Russia launching an attack on Ukraine on Thursday. "The Russian market for Indian tea is extremely important as there are payment issues for shipments to Iran, another vital tea export destination. "Around 18 per cent of India's tea shipments go to Russia," India Tea Association chairperson Nayantara Palchoudhuri told PTI.
The anti-talks faction of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam on Wednesday alleged that a section of senior police officials were in collusion with a band of criminals who have been kidnapping Assamese businessmen in Tinsukia districts in eastern Assam to defame the ULFA.
This will hit the Indian plantation sector as it is not competitive, cost wise, and will be wiped out from the domestic market as well as from the export market, according to D P Maheshwari, president, United Planters' Association of Southern India.
The tea sector may see a crop loss of 50 per cent (around Rs150 crore) while the damages owing to landslides washing away a 100-acre plantation in Wayanad are yet to be accounted for.
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The Assam government has taken the initiative to pay workers their wages electronically and has asked banks to open branches adjacent to tea gardens and install ATMs in estates.
"Nari shakti" and women empowerment dominated the theme of tableaux of Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Tripura at the Republic Day parade here on Thursday.
The views are stunning, the skies are blue, the forests are lush and, wonder of wonders, thanks to the discipline of the tea estate, even man isn't vile, discover Renu Bahal Wadhwa and T C A Srinivasa Raghavan after a trip to Kerala's breathtakingly beautiful hill retreat.
It's a busy season for Indian producers of orthodox tea. As Sri Lanka, the world's largest supplier of orthodox tea, struggles with its worst economic crisis, a window of opportunity has opened up in neighbouring India. Calls to Indian planters and exporters from foreign buyers of Sri Lankan orthodox tea are pouring in and the buoyant sentiment is reflecting in prices at auction centres. Orthodox tea refers to loose-leaf tea which is produced using traditional or orthodox methods such as plucking, withering, rolling, oxidation and drying.
Rough estimates from plantation companies have pegged production loss in excess of 100 million kg (mkg) across India which is valued at around Rs 2000 crore. Usually, plantation companies in Assam and West Bengal produce around 15 per cent of the total tea during March-April.
As the economic crisis in Sri Lanka - the world's largest exporter of orthodox tea - continues to rage across the island nation, tea producers in India look to cash in on the opportunity to seize the market. The country's largest tea growing company, McLeod Russel India, expects orders to come in from July. "A huge opportunity is coming up for everyone in India. "McLeod Russel is well placed because we have the capacity for orthodox tea," said Azam Monem, director, McLeod Russel. About 10 per cent of McLeod's production is orthodox tea.
The parade was carried out in front of an executive magistrate in the Thane Central Jail recently.
Global exports of coffee in October 2019 fell by 13.4 per cent, to 8.91 million bags, compared to the same month in the previous year. A mix of factors, including unfavourable weather patterns and prolonged low international prices, have contributed to a decline in shipments across all regions. The daily price of the ICO composite rose from $102.74 cents/lb at the beginning of November to a high of $111.86 cents/lb on November 25, 2019, before closing the month at $111.77 cents/lb.
Land plots filled with wild grasses near Ghazipur, Tikri and Singhu protest sites have been converted into well-curated nurseries with a variety of flowers like marigold and rose.
'Agriculture has been given the wrong kind of attention.' 'More innovations are needed for the sector to be successful,' says Devi Murthy of Kamal Kisan.
The National Investigation Agency on Saturday made its first arrest in connection with Maharashtra's 2006 Malegaon bombing after the role of right-wing groups came to the fore with the nabbing of Swami Aseemanand last year.
The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squasd, probing the 13/7 blasts case, is on hunt for five more alleged Indian Mujahideen operatives suspected to have played key role in the terror attacks, besides the group's top operative Yasin Bhatkal and two planters, police said on Sunday.
The Maharashtra police has prepared sketches of two persons who may have planted explosives in Pune as investigators suspect the involvement of at least three persons in executing the August 1 serial bomb blasts in Pune.
The outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam, anti-talks faction, on Wednesday launched personal attack on the chairman of a charitable hospital after the latter had spilled the beans before the media about an extortion demand slapped by the outfit in a demand letter addressed to him and sent to the hospital.
The appeal filed through advocate Nishant R Katneshwarkar raised 20 grounds while assailing the high court order.
The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad on Monday claimed to have made a major breakthrough in the July 13 triple blasts in Mumbai last year that claimed 27 lives, with the arrest of two of the accused hailing from Bihar.
A wanted accused in the 13/7 Mumbai blasts, who had planted one of the bombs that went off that fateful evening, had enrolled himself at a gymnasium owned by the family of underworld don-turned-politician Arun Gawli, the Anti-Terrorism Squad said on Friday.
