-Livemint.com Tractor sales have gone up in a year which has seen farmer protests in several states for remunerative crop prices and farm loan waivers, amid lingering effects of demonetisation and GST implementation New Delhi: Domestic tractor sales rose to a record in the first half of the fiscal year, but economists are hesitating to interpret it as a sign that the farm economy has finally turned the corner. Tractor manufacturers sold 363,071...

-The Hindu Business Line Scars on agriculture supply chain remain a pain point for commodity prices Bengaluru: A year after demonetisation, the cash-intensive agriculture sector is yet to fully recover from the impact. Cash continues to be the preferred instrument for rural and farm transactions, while alternatives such as cheques and bank transfers are seen making their presence felt in some quarters. The cautious agri-trade is still seen struggling with inventory management, as the...

-The Hindu Business Line Costs, prices, credit issues are a challenge, just as in other States Ahead of the Assembly elections, the Gujarat government has announced a slew of measures to woo rural voters. This includes waiver of GST on equipment used in micro-irrigation, 0 interest on loans up to ?3 lakh for farmers, and a bonus of ?500 per quintal on cotton. But these sops are not likely to make farmers in...

-Livemint.com Wholesale prices of just-harvested kharif pulses have dropped below the government’s minimum support prices (MSP) despite a lower crop output New Delhi: Wholesale prices of just harvested kharif pulses have dropped below the government’s minimum support prices (MSP) despite a lower crop output, forcing farmers to sell their produce at a loss in states such as Rajasthan. For instance, price data from wholesale markets available on the Agmarket website showed that on...

-The Times of India Former economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das , who played a key role during the demonetisation drive, spoke to TOI's Sidhartha & Surojit Gupta, four months after retiring from service in May. He says he does not agree with the criticism that implementation of demonetisation had serious shortcomings. Excerpts: * What is your assessment on the state of the economy? The macroeconomic parameters, except the growth figures which are down...