-The Economic Times KOCHI: A spate of avian flu outbreaks in the last few years has dashed India's hopes of becoming a major egg exporter. Oman, the largest buyer of Indian eggs, has now imposed a second ban on Indian shipments this year following the avian flu incidence in a research farm in Karnataka. The earlier embargo on Indian eggs enforced by Oman in March was only lifted in September. Oman accounts...

-The Telegraph Kolkata: Owners of potato cold storages today announced a day’s shutdown on Monday and threatened a longer agitation to protest the Mamata Banerjee government’s refusal to allow a rent hike. Many officials termed this as another instance of the “populist” government’s reluctance to raise tariffs. “The rent is our only source of income. Overhead costs have spiralled in the past two years. But the government is not allowing us to increase...

-The Hindu Pokhari village in Maharashtra’s Buldhana district continues to reel under a spate of farmer suicides. From 1998 till now, nothing seems to have changed A phone call informing him about the twin suicides of his father and older brother changed 23-year-old Sunil Wagh’s life forever. On September 28, his father Shivaji, 55, and brother Baliram, 28, hung themselves, Shivaji at his farm and Baliram at his home in Pokhari village...

-Outlook Bhopal: With dharnas, rallies and fasts not drawing much attention from the government, people in Madhya Pradesh have resorted to unique ways of protests that have been taken notice of and provided some relief to protesters. In the last few months, Madhya Pradesh witnessed three different kinds of protests that drew the attention of media and the government. A couple of months back, villagers held a 'Jal Satyagraha' against submergence of fertile...

-Outlook State-owned banks have been asked to strictly adhere to the March, 2014 time-line for converting all Kisan Credit Cards (KCCs) to ATM cards, Finance Minister P Chidambaram today said. "All KCCs will be converted to ATM cards. I have impressed upon all chairpersons of the banks that this time-line must be strictly adhered to," Chidambaram said following a meeting with the chief executives of state-run banks. State-owned lenders were asked to convert...