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Farmers of Punjab and Haryana today threatened to reduce the area under wheat cultivation in the upcoming sowing season protesting the "miniscule" hike in minimum support price (MSP) of the crop.
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Dubbing the latest wheat MSP increase as inadequate, farm experts sought a minimum hike of Rs 50 per quintal instead of Rs 20 a quintal in the wake of high inflation and increase in farmers' input cost. PTI 201010
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| MSP of chana (gram) and masur (lentil) have been raised by a hefty Rs 340 and Rs 380 a quintal over last year, to send the right signals to growers. |
The Centre has targeted an all-time-high pulses output of 165 lt for 2010-11, including 75.8 lt from chana alone. Last year, chana production hit a record 73.5 lt.
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The MSP of rapeseed-mustard has, however, gone up by a mere Rs 20 a quintal.
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Sugar output estimate raised to 24.5 mt
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The government on Wednesday hiked the sugar production estimate for the 2010-11 marketing year (October-September) to 24.5 million tonnes (mt) from 23 mt earlier. ET 201010
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| 2G spectrum scam may be India's biggest scandal @ Rs1.40 lakh crore: Advani |
In the post on his blog, Advani referred to headlines last week about the Comptroller and Auditor General's report on 2G spectrum allocation. |
"The Comptroller and Auditor General has reported that A. Raja's Telecom Ministry carried out the entire spectrum allocation in 2008 in an 'arbitrary manner' ignoring the advice of the Law Ministry, the Finance Ministry and even the Prime Minister," Advani wrote. |
He said the CAG has assessed the loss suffered by the country due to this arbitrary approach at a stupendous Rs.1.40 lakh crores.
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"This CAG assessment may well make this spectrum scam the biggest scandal since Independence," he said. ET 181010 |
Commonwealth games , steeped in corruption charges, costs a fortune-Rs 70,000 crore
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The Commonwealth Games, according to reports, have cost the nation about Rs. 70,000 crore which include expenses by different ministries besides the Delhi Government. About Rs. 15,000 crore were spent by the city government for improving infrastructure facilities ahead of the sporting extravaganza and OC budget was Rs 1,600 crore. PTI /The Hindu 171010
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BJP President, Gadkari raised questions about the huge increase in the budget allocated for the Games, which was billed at Rs. 2,000 crore in 2003 but went upto Rs 70,000 in 2010.TH 191010
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| Edible oil imports double to over 88 lt in 2009-10 |
NEW DELHI: Driven by widening demand-supply mismatch, edible oil imports have more than doubled in just four years to over 88 lakh tonnes in 2009-10 oil year, and the momentum is expected to continue in the coming years.
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| In the first eleven months of the current oil year, which ends in October, India has already imported 80.42 lt and up to eight lt is on the anvil this month taking the tally to over 88 lakh tonnes, said Mr B.V. Mehta, Executive Director, Solvent Extracto rs’ Association. |
The country imported only 44.16 lt in 2005-06, 47.14 lt in 2006-07, 56.08 lt in 2007-08 and 81.83 lt in 2008-09 oil year. The rise in imports is led by increase in demand for edible oils, and a near stagnant oilseeds production in the last decade due to non-growth in acreage.
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As per a Rabo India Finance report, published recently, while India’s edible oil consumption has grown by 6.5 per cent per annum since 2000-01 to reach 147 lt — valued at $15 billion — oilseeds production has grown only by 4.7 per cent during the period.
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Further the increase in area under oilseeds cultivation is a big challenge due to lack of arable land and competition from grains and other cash crops.
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“Low quality seed, low access to inputs, poor farming practices and the fact that much of India’s oilseed crop is cultivated in unirrigated areas are the reasons for oilseeds productivity lower than the global average,” Rabo India said.
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| Moreover, India’s per capita consumption of about 12.7 kg is well below the global average of 20 kg. Coupled with rising income on a growing economy, the country’s reliance on imports — over half the total demand — is only going to escalate in the coming years. — PTI 181010 |
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