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.
The famed Darjeeling tea may have slip to a new production low in 2025, as changing weather patterns, a shortage of pluckers and mounting economic stress weigh on the region's gardens.
Which were India's first companies that still exist today? Many trace their origins to over a century back. These venerable organisations are business entities. But they chronicle the beginnings of Corporate India.
The root of the problem, according to industry officials, is the sudden stoppage of lines of credit to tea plantation companies.
The quality of Indian tea had lately come under scrutiny in major export markets, due to the presence of pesticides and chemicals beyond permissible limits.
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.
Production cost in Africa varies between $1 and $2 a kg while in Assam it is $1.9 and in West Bengal over $2
Can a culture survive as a way of life, even as the language and writing at its core, alter with time? Can we be rational and Malayalee or do we have to necessarily be religious and proudly cultural to be Malayalee? asks Shyam G Menon.
The deployment of the special forces, however, will come at a cost for the industrial houses and tea companies. They will have to pay to utilise the services of the special government security forces that will operate under the state director general of civil defence and home guards.
In the months immediately following the 2024 tragedy, reporting on the landslide per se had been a straightforward affair. On one side was death and destruction. On the other side, survivors and the business of survival. It was black and white. What direction to take was clear. Rehabilitation in comparison, felt like a complex situation. One that is fraught with shades of grey. As grey as human life, explains Shyam G Menon.
Seven out of eight women street vendors reported experiencing high blood pressure, while women in the middle age group raised concerns about delays in their menstrual cycles due to the extreme heat.
Darjeeling is on the boil over the demand for a separate Gorkhaland state. June and July are bad months to have a strike. Tea picking during its most valuable season has been affected. Those consequences will be felt all over the world and ultimately damage Darjeeling tea.
Madhu Jayanti's Rs 55-crore packet tea business so far is only in Maharashtra and Karnataka. After Eveready's tea business buyout, MJIL's tea production in India will increase from 2.4 million kg to 6.2 mkg and its income from branded tea sales will rise 53 per cent to Rs 198 crore this fiscal year itself. It will also be available in 14 states.
Keisha Santwan, 16, and her travel-obsessed family love the joy of exploring new places.
When the landslide hit, Sruthi's house was washed away, along with its inhabitants. She lost her entire family and some relatives. All she had left for a close confidante was her fiance Jenson. Days after the landslide and the loss of her family, Jenson died in a road accident that also left Sruthi with serious injuries. News of the accident and Sruthi's backdrop as the lone surviving member of a family wiped out in the July landslide, was picked up by the media, and people rushed to help.
Chai Sahay, an artificial intelligence-based mobile app, will be primarily used to issue advisory, disseminate information related to various schemes of the board for the sector as well as provide real-time weather updates, says Avishek Rakshit.
Popular doesn't always mean best. Here's why.
'I think some of us, like Mukesh Ambani, myself and those of us who head industrial units, ought to really focus on what we can really do to make the world a safer place, maybe 50 or 100 years from now.' 'For instance, how can we deal with climate change and global warming, right now?' 'The effects of it may not be felt now; in fact, we may pay a price for it today, but it will help the generations to follow.'
Undisclosed income has been detected in respect of 10 assessee groups which included those linked to AIADMK leader V K Sasikala.
Sonowal said the judgement is a reflection of India's democratic values where human rights and fairness are respected.
Out of the 745 gardens in Assam, which accounts for over 55 per cent of total tea production, an alert has been sounded for 88 gardens, while for West Bengal, out of the 377 gardens, 65 have been cautioned.
The mood in the tribal heartland in the east and in central India spread over Odisha, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh and parts of West Bengal and Assam, is upbeat.
Piramals are the largest investors in the Indian real estate sector after HDFC, with investments worth $3 billion already.
The unrest in the hills has led to the tea sector losing its entire second flush, and Rs 200 crore of its annual earnings.
The entire operation was meant to have a chilling effect on independent journalists, those not completely subservient to the regime, the small section still doing what the Fourth Estate should do -- raising questions to those in power.
Already, there is a feeling even within the BJP's AIADMK ally that the BJP is overdoing things on the ED/I-T front, as corruption is not an election issue in the state -- as long as the people are otherwise not excessively unhappy with the governing party, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
With the first salary date after demonetisation around the corner, will India's labourers be able to take their hard-earned wages home?
A large number of rich farmers, who earn more than salaried employees in the cities, get away with paying no tax at all in view of the government's lack of will to consider an agricultural income tax
'For the Tamil Nadu protestors to openly ask popular film actor Vijay Sethupathi not to don Murali in 800 is a travesty in every sense. It may have given them a cause to tell the world, and the governments in New Delhi, Colombo and Chennai, that the Sri Lankan ethnic issue was still alive in the state -- more so, during the current run-up to two major events in the first half of 2021,' says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Coca-Cola's acquisition of British coffee chain Costa, its biggest acquisition of a brand in history, faces three challenges in India.
These exist in a unique world of by-invitation-only properties -- those that are never advertised and which money alone cannot buy. One cannot simply walk in for a tour of these apartments. A buyer must first meet the developer's targeted social criteria to get invited for a walkthrough of the property.
But experts say downside limited, pockets of opportunities for investors
Nifty, which has struggled around 8550-8560 levels managed to blast past this resistance and close above the psychological mark of 8600.
Sensex climbs higher on favourable global cues.
Amid the raging row over National Herald case, the Congress on Sunday asserted that the allegations and "insinuations" against party leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are "deliberately orchestrated", "patently false" and "defamatory" as they have "not received a rupee".
'The execution has been 100 per cent faulty.' 'The scheme is also a stupid one, a real Tuglaq Darbar scheme.' 'This way of attacking black money is the most ineffective one.'
'The toughest challenge is not to satisfy the luxury customer.' 'The toughest challenge is to satisfy the budget customer.'
Fortune favours the brave, and the loyal. And Vinubhai Kanjibhai Jaipal, who served Gajrajsinh Jadeja unflinchingly through thick and thin, will attest to it, having inherited Rs 600 crore from his late employer, says Haresh Pandya.
In Delhi, the poor are pitted against the middle class, with the former led by Arvind Kejriwal and the latter by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances