-The Hindu Two separate decisions on farm loan waivers could have a domino effect Chairing his first cabinet meeting after taking over the reins in Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath approved a write-off on outstanding farmer loans of up to Rs. 1 lakh taken before March 31, 2016. The State cabinet also decided to waive loans worth Rs. 6,000 crore extended to small and marginal farmers that had turned into non-performing...

-PTI NEW DELHI: Ban on cash transaction in excess of Rs 2 lakh will not be applicable to withdrawals from banks and post office savings accounts, the income tax department said on Wednesday. Through the Finance Act 2017, the government has banned cash transactions of over Rs 2 lakh and said a penalty of an equal amount would be levied on the receiver. In a clarification on the newly inserted Section 269ST in...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A clutch of legal amendments the Narendra Modi government has introduced to allow corporate political donors to mask their contributions drags the world's largest democracy against global currents of rising transparency in electoral funding, analysts and activists have warned. From Brazil to Bangladesh, and Croatia to Cyprus, countries of diverse sizes and varied histories with democracy have over the past decade adopted laws and rules aimed at making...

-The Times of india MUMBAI: Even as the agriculture sector shows signs of recovery from the severe 2015 drought, the sugar industry is yet to get over it. The crushing season for 2016-17 has officially come to an end and it has recorded the lowest sugarcane crushing and production of sugar in the last 10 years. A total of 371.4 lakh metric tonnes of sugarcane was crushed in 147 mills across the...

-PRS Legislative Research The key findings of the report entitled: State of Agriculture in India by Tanvi Deshpande (March, 2017) are as follows: * The agriculture sector employs nearly half of the workforce in the country.  However, it contributes to 17.5% of the GDP (at current prices in 2015-16). * Over the past few decades, the manufacturing and services sectors have increasingly contributed to the growth of the economy, while the agriculture sector’s...