-Newsclick.in Modi government has been mercilessly hiking up taxes on petrol and diesel to take money from the people and boost its resources. Since the prices of petroleum products were deregulated some years back and supposedly “linked” to markets, the central government has weaponised this to simply impose an indirect tax burden on the people. Take the four big metros: Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. On an average, petrol prices have increased from...

-IndiaToday.in India’s edible oil demand far exceeds Domestic production. At least 60 per cent is met through imports, and global prices are soaring. Is there a way out? These days, aside from the coronavirus, Ajay Kumar a 40-year-old a resident of Tagore Garden in West Delhi, finds himself worrying about inflation. He says his monthly spending on essentials like vegetable oils has been steadily rising—a litre of mustard oil now costs him...

-TheWire.in The COVID-19 has increased risks for children, especially those from vulnerable communities. The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed 100 million more into poverty, says a recent UN report. In our own backyard, what about India’s 454 million internal economic migrants, who constitute 37% of the total population? How many of them are youth and women? On June 10, the International Labour Organisation and UNICEF jointly surmised that 160 million children are in child...

In his Mann ki Baat address to the nation on 30th May, 2021, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi appreciated the fact that the farmers received "more than the minimum support price (MSP) for mustard" pertaining to the rabi production. One can easily guess from this statement of the PM that the mustard growers in Haryana (and elsewhere) preferred to sell their produce to private traders in the open market instead...

-MoneyControl.com India’s production of oilseeds is too little to provide for the domestic demand and therefore is dependent on imports. The average retail prices of edible oils rose to their highest in May with soyabean oil prices climbing to nearly Rs 150 for a kilo and sunflower oil to Rs 170. The prices of both edible oils have jumped around 50% from the levels prevailing when the country was under a national...