Not used to anyone inspecting their books, onion traders have not taken lightly to the govt's efforts to find the hoarders and others indulging in mass-scale wrongdoing and launched a strike that will hit consumers' pockets even more. However, they have said that they are being forced to sell under even the production cost. Understandably, but there were not many takers for that view. Traders in Nashik and adjoining areas today went...

Onion hubs were raided across the country today and officials claimed prices tumbled Rs 5-10 as a result of the income-tax department’s action a day after the Centre urged states to counter hoarding. Calcutta’s Sealdah wholesale mart and Asansol were among the places in Bengal that saw the swoops. Similar action was seen in several towns in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had written to...

Thirty-year-old Santa Meena, a tribal woman of Saru panchayat is probably unaware that a panel headed by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and the Manmohan Singh-led government are struggling to arrive at the quantity of grain that BPL families should get under the Public Distribution System. All this mother of five knows is that she has to trudge 10 km from her hamlet to the ration shop in Saru (10 km from...

Around 100 cooperative sugar mills in Maharashtra have lost one round of a battle on income tax (I-T) arrears dating back to 1992-93, with an appellate authority rejecting their argument on dues. If the decision, by the commissioner of income tax (appeals), is not appealed again, the mills may have to pay Rs 2,500 crore in arrears. Vijaysinh Mohite-Patil, chairman of the Federation of cooperative Sugar Factories in Maharashtra, told Business Standard:...

From green revolution, Andhra Pradesh wants to move to pink revolution in agriculture, with women in the primary role. The project has started in a small way but hopes to turn 60 per cent of the cultivable area in the state over to organic farming. It will be implemented with the help of women’s self-help groups, which were in the limelight recently for highlighting the usury ways of micro-finance institutions. Already, over a...