-The Telegraph New Delhi: The government's ban on cattle and buffalo sales for slaughter in animal markets will hurt not just meat sellers but also farmers across communities and could spark a milk shortage, meat dealers today said. "This is a very impractical move. It is totally anti-farmer," said Yusuf Quraishi, president of the Uttar Pradesh unit of the All India Jamiat-ul-Quraish. Most of those engaged in slaughtering animals are Muslims from...

-Hindustan Times Sultan and Yuvraj are the centre of attraction at Kota’s agriculture fair because their semen fetches their owners more than Rs 150,000 per ejaculation. Kota: Yuvraj is no ordinary bull. Its seed fetches its owner Rs 150,000 for one ejaculation. The 9-year-old bull of Murrah breed drinks 20 litres of milk every day to stay fit and healthy. He has so far fathered more than 200,000 calves, his owner says. Like...

-The Hindu Liberalisation has eroded the institutional capacity to train young people who might pursue liberal values The other day, a student asked me what exactly the word ‘liberal’ mean. She wanted to know whether ‘liberalisation’ promotes ‘liberal’ values. She had noticed that institutions of higher education, which are supposed to promote liberal values, were finding it difficult to resist ideological and commercial pressures triggered by the process of economic liberalisation. So,...

-Livemint.com The GST Council has fixed a 12% GST rate on fertilizers, up from the current 4-8% rates, depending on raw materials used and in which states the products are sold New Delhi: India’s landmark tax reform, the goods and services tax (GST), may not be good news for farmers. Retail PRIces of commonly used fertilizers and micronutrients are likely to increase, not only raising the cost of cultivation but also leading...

-The Pioneer While the Government has done its bit to boost the output of pulses, it has done little to check the nexus between politicians and grain traders For several decades, production of pulses in India has fallen substantially short in terms of consumption. This persistent deficit has led to intermittent bouts of spike in PRIces as imports (needed to plug it) have often come after lag and have failed to reach...