-The Indian Express The crisis in the crop’s prices in two of the four years of the Modi government illustrate that farmers no longer matter to it. Farmers are habitually great raconteurs. My grandfather would often narrate an episode, when he encountered a farmer sitting by a heap of potatoes in the middle of the night. On investigating what compelled the farmer to guard potatoes when there were no buyers, he was...

-The Indian Express Behind dumping of potatoes, including outside Assembly, a bumper crop and insufficient storage space. Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh, the largest potato producing state with about 35% of the country’s total output, has had a bumper crop in 2016-17 — over 155 lakh tonnes — with the result that potatoes are rotting along roadsides and outside cold storage units. What threw the spotlight on the surplus — apparently more than the government...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government has met a key demand of single-brand retailers by relaxing a mandatory 30 per cent local sourcing condition. The change was announced along with the decision to allow 100 per cent foreign direct investment under the automatic route for single-brand retail trading, which will help companies like Apple to set up branded stores across India. Foreign retailers will now be permitted to set off their...

-The Economic Times Max Super Specialty, Patparganj has made “unfair” and “excessive” profits on the sale of disposable syringes to patients admitted in its hospital, an investigation by the Competition Commission of India has revealed. The commission is expected to hold a hearing on this issue on December 20. CCI in 2015 ordered a probe into allegations that the hospital had colluded with multinational syringe maker Becton Dickinson’s Indian arm to sell...

-The Times of India BENGALURU: For most residents of Bhangi colony near KR Market, pressing on the Aadhaar-enabled point-of-sale (PoS) machine at the nearby ration store is a crucial exercise that is riddled with unpredictability. For, the machine could deny their share of subsidized food, simply by not recognizing their thumb impression. Despite most of them having successfully seeded their Aadhaar numbers with ration cards, many are struggling to get foodgrains from...