-PTI New Delhi: Tomato prices, which have skyrocketed up to Rs. 100/kg, are more likely to decline over the next fortnight as supplies from southern and other growing states are expected to improve, said a senior ICAR official. Retail tomato prices have gone through the roof for more than a month now in most parts of the country and are still ruling high up to 100 per kg, as per the Consumer...

-Livemint.com Under the flagship crop insurance scheme Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, Rs5,875 crore, or just 45%, has been paid to farmers, agriculture ministry data shows New Delhi: Farmers who suffered crop losses in 2016-17 are yet to receive insurance compensation for 55% of estimated claims under the flagship Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY), shows latest numbers from the agriculture ministry. The data shows that insurance companies collected Rs22,338 crore in 2016-17...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: An environmental court in Calcutta today directed the Chhattisgarh government to halt work on 31 projects along the Mahanadi river that environmental groups fear will reduce the downstream water flow in Odisha. The Calcutta bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) issued a stay order on the projects, a mix of dams, barrages, irrigation channels among them, at various locations along the Mahanadi before the river enters Odisha's...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Union cabinet today cleared a plan to introduce a pan-India minimum wage that will cover all sectors of the economy. The Labour Code on Wages Bill seeks to empower the Centre to fix a universal minimum wage for workers across the country. The new law is expected to benefit over 4 crore employees across the country. The Code will consolidate four different wage-related laws: the Minimum Wages Act,...

-The Indian Express For farmers, a uniform 2 per cent premium rate on sum insured (SI) for all kharif or monsoon season foodgrains and oilseeds, while 1.5 per cent for rabi winter crops and 5 per cent for annual commercial and horticultural crops, is the lowest they can hope for. The country couldn’t possibly have, at least on paper, a better agricultural crop insurance scheme than the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima...