Happy Media

The Indian Express October 22,2020 Amid rising onion prices , and perhaps also keeping in view the Bihar elections, the Centre on Wednesday relaxed import norms for the bulb until December 15 and asked Indian High Commissioners in “relevant” countries to contact traders there to facilitate its import by India. The government has expressed hope that kharif onions, likely to start arriving soon in mandis, will give reprieve to the rising prices. The move comes at a time when retail price of onion has increased in recent days. According to the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, a sharp spike in prices by Rs 11.56 per kg over the last 10 days has taken the all-India retail price of onion to Rs 51.95 per kg. This is 12.13 per cent higher than the price of Rs 46.33 per kg at this time last year. On September 14, the government had  announced a ban on onion expor t   “to ensure availability to domestic consumers at reasonable rates during the lean seaso...

Telegraphindia October 21,2020 The allocation of coal blocks for commercial mining will be delayed as the nominated authority to conduct the auction has sought additional information and clarification on the technical bids submitted by bidders. The nominated authority has sought “supplemental information” and “additional clarification” on the technical bids submitted by the bidders, causing a delay, according to the auction website. The government received bids for 23 of the 38 coal blocks for commercial mining. A total of 42 domestic companies submitted bids. The technical bids were submitted on September 29 and are being examined by the authority. It was supposed to evaluate the financial bids from October 19 and a technical evaluation committee will make final offers to the qualified bidders by  November 9. Global giants had stayed away from the bidding and there were no bids for 15 of 38 coal mines on offer. Gautam Adani-controlled conglomerate Adani Enterprises placed the high...

The Indian Express Pranav Mukul  ,  Aanchal Magazine April 04,2020 IN WHAT clearly indicates supply-side disruptions after states enforced lockdown to stymie the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, wholesale prices of essential commodities, especially vegetables, have shown a sharp increase during the last fortnight of March. The average countrywide prices of vegetables such as onions and tomatoes, which were softening in the first fortnight of March, recorded a perceptible spurt in the second half of the month after March 15 when lockdowns became effective, according to data compiled by the Department of Consumer Affairs. In the normal scenario, if there are disruptions in supply chains, retail prices increase and wholesale prices drop. But, now, since there is possibly a glut of stocks at one place and goods are not moving, wholesale prices are also showing an increase, economists and agri experts said. The experts attributed the rise in prices of the ...

Our Bureau  New Delhi | Updated on January 27, 2020 Horticulture output to touch 313 mt The days of onion crisis seem to be over. According to the first advance estimates released by the Agriculture Ministry on Monday, onion production in the current crop year is projected to be 24.45 million tonnes (mt), nearly 7 per cent more than 22.82 mt produced in the 2018-19 crop year. India’s crop year runs from July to June. Apart from onions, most major vegetables, including potato and tomato, are expected to have higher output than last year, pushing the total vegetable production to 188 mt, against 183 mt in 2018-19. Fruit production, on the other hand, is expected to slide by 2.27 per cent to 95.74 mt from 97.97 mt. Vegetable production The bumper vegetable production is expected to push up the total horticulture production to 313.35 mt, about 1 per cent higher than the 310.74 mt projected in the final estimates for 2018-19. The Ministry announced the final estimates ...

Amiti Sen  New Delhi | Updated on January 28, 2020 Decision on procedures needs to be expedited to prevent domestic prices from spiralling To enable shipments of refined palm oil to come in from countries such as Nepal and Indonesia following the government’s decision to place the commodity in the restricted import list, the Centre is working on licensing norms for its imports. “An inter-Ministerial group comprising senior officials from Ministries and Departments including Food and Consumer Affairs will decide on the licensing norms. They will try to ensure that exporters from countries such as Nepal and Indonesia are not unnecessarily hassled,” a government official said. Price rise fears The Centre, however, needs to act fast on the matter as delay in firming up the licensing procedures could fuel an increase in prices of edible oil in the domestic market due to a shortfall in import of refined palm oil and an increase in import prices of crude palm oil, th...

Business Line G. Chandrashekhar In an inexplicable departure from what should have been obvious and rational, the Union Finance Ministry has created an ‘inverted duty’ structure for some of the imported raw materials for the country’s personal care industry. Palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD) and crude palm stearin (CPS) are raw materials used in the manufacture of toilet soaps, soap noodles, shampoo and other personal care products. They are imported for producing oleochemicals such as fatty acids and fatty alcohols. Customs duty Both PFAD and CPS were allowed at nil rate of customs duty under the ‘actual user’ condition in June 2017, providing a boost to the domestic personal care and oleochemicals industry. The logic of the ‘actual user’ condition was to ensure prevention of excessive import and leakage of revenue. However, on July 5, in the Union Budget 2019-20, the Finance Minister imposed a 7.5 per cent customs duty on their import, the rational...

Rahul Wadke   Mumbai | Updated on  November 20, 2019   Published on  November 20, 2019 Maharashtra’s sugar production for 2019-20 (October-September) is likely to dip 45 per cent due to lower acreage, adverse climatic conditions and diversion of sugarcane for animal fodder. Ethanol production is also expected to dip by 40 per cent. An executive with a large sugar mill has said that prices in the wholesale and retail markets, however, are expected to be firm due to massive unsold stocks from previous years. For the sugar year 2018-19 the production was 107 lakh tonnes (lt) and for 2019-20 it is likely decline to 58 lt. On Tuesday, Sugar Commissioner of Maharashtra, Shekhar Gaikwad told  BusinessLine  that in 2018-19, the acerage was 11.62 lakh hectares but for 2019-20 it has dipped to about 8.22 lakh hectares. The Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari met Gaikwad and gave the go-ahead for crushing operations for the year 2019-20. Since th...

Livemint October 24, 2019 By- Ravindra N. Sonavane Indian markets opened 0.5% higher on Thursday led by gains in information technologies stocks. Investor sentiment also received a boost after early trends gave indications of Bhartiya Janata Party returning to power in Maharashtra and Haryana. At 9.30 am, the Sensex rose 0.6% to 39,276.27 points, while the Nifty gained 0.54% to 11,666.90 points. According to early trends, the BJP and its alliance is likely to get 114 seats in Maharashtra and 38 seats in Haryana. US indices ended with gains as oil prices rallied. Energy stocks led gainers. Asian indices opened in the black led by the Nikkei as Microsoft earnings saw Dow Jones futures rise. China will witness more traction as Yuan strength are likely to see good ETF flows with earnings being the catalyst. IT stocks were also trading higher. HCL Technologies gained 4% after the company posted a 6.9% rise in its consolidated net profit to ₹2,711 crore for the Se...

Livemint October 24, 2019 According to the IOC website, the price of petrol fell on Thursday in Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai The diesel prices also fell in the four major metropolitan cities.  After a day of no change, the prices of petrol and diesel fell again on Thursday, an Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) data revealed. The oil marketing companies reported no change in the price of petrol and diesel on Wednesday. According to the IOC website, the price of petrol fell on Thursday in Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai to ₹73.17 per litre, ₹75.82, ₹78.78, and ₹75.99, respectively. The diesel prices also fell in the four major metropolitan cities. It fell to ₹66.06 per litre in Delhi, ₹68.42 in Kolkata, ₹69.24 in Mumbai, and ₹69.77 in Chennai. In the international market, the crude oil registered a fall in its price after a rise in the previous two sessions while the Brent oil continued to trade above $60 per barrel. Reference:  https://www....

The Hindu  August 22, 2019 Trucks to ferry produce unavailable Security restrictions and absence of communication links have hit Kashmir’s multi-crore apple business. The movement of fruit trucks to the Valley has reduced from 1,200 to just 120 a day. Nazeer Ahmad, 55, an orchard owner in the apple town of Shopian, on Thursday reached Srinagar to seek help from the administration for making available trucks and giving them safe passage “All   mandis   [designated apple markets], especially in Shopian and Sopore, are shut. No buyer from outside the State has come here. This is likely to affect the pricing. We fear the ripe harvest may rot in case trucks from other States fail to arrive in the Valley,” Mr. Ahmad said. “This year buyers from Delhi’s Azadpur mandi avoided advance contracts for the standing crop, putting the burden of ferrying the crop on the orchard owners completely.” The apple season starts in the second week of August and peaks ...

The Print 21 August, 2019 Mumbai:  ITC Ltd., Asia’s largest cigarette maker by market value, is considering a bid to buy a stake in Coffee Day Enterprises Ltd. as it seeks to diversify away from tobacco products, according to people familiar with the matter. The maker of Classic and Gold Flake cigarettes has been given access to Coffee Day’s assets and financial for due diligence, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the discussions are private. ITC could be vying with Coca-Cola Co., which has evaluated India’s biggest cafe chain but hasn’t made a formal offer, said one of the people. A successful bid will help ITC further diversify its business to reduce dependence on cigarettes as India raises taxes on tobacco and restricts smoking in public places. Coffee Day is under pressure to pare borrowings after its founder V.G. Siddhartha took his own life as debt strains began to emerge in his companies. Deliberations are at preliminary stage and may not lead ...

Mongabay September 17, 2018 In a region where Bt cotton rules the roost, Kamal Kishore Dhiran, a farmer in Balodi, 50 km from Yavatmal (in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra) is an outlier. He has been planting desi cotton seeds and withstood the pressure to grow transgenic or Bt cotton since it was introduced in 2002. He was once part of a successful organic cotton venture – the Vidarbha Organic Farmers Association (VOFA) which is now defunct, and which used to export organic cotton. Dhiran still grows ‘straight’ (as opposed to hybrid) varieties of cotton; he sources it from the Punjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth in Akola every few years. He is among the few farmers who saves the seed and only buys fresh ones every three years or so. Dhiran has been a farmer since 1960, and owns 60 acres. He did try out hybrid cotton seeds and grew them with fertilisers and other chemicals – soon he found the yields were falling and he decided to grow desi (indigenous) cotton which was m...

The Hindu June 12, 2019 The government on Tuesday decided to raise the import limit on arhar dal to 4 lakh tonnes (LT) from the present 2 LT as there were media reports that the prices have gone up in the market. The decision was taken at an inter-ministerial meeting convened by Food and Public Distribution Minister Ram Vilas Paswan. The meeting, attended by senior officials from food, consumer affairs, agriculture and commerce ministries, also decided to ask state-owned NAFED to offload 2 LT arhar dal in the open market, a statement said. It also decided to import 1.75 LT of pulses from Mozambique under bilateral trade treaty. According to the sources, the government would issue licences to private traders who are applying for import licences within 10 days of receiving applications. Reiterating that there was no reason to be panic, the sources said there are about 39 LT of pulses available with the state-run firms with Nafed alone keeping a stock of 27 LT. The go...