The Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) has decided to purchase stocks from farmers, who have been on a warpath for two months demanding a higher support price for their crop. Sources said bowing to pressure from farmers and political parties, the Union government cleared the decks for launching purchase centres by CCI in the state. Field-level officials at CCI, however, are still wary about the arrival of poor quality of stocks...

Faced with a liquidity crunch, microfinance companies have asked RBI to direct banks to set up an emergency fund of Rs 1,000 crore to help them tide over slowdown in their business. Sources said the Microfinance Institution Network (MFIN) is trying to convince the central bank in this regard. The micro finance sector has been reeling under a liquidity crisis after the Andhra Pradesh Government issued an ordinance to control interest...

Investments worth Rs 100 crore in silica sand mining and beneficiation in Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh are in jeopardy due to the state government’s insistence on acquiring the mineral-bearing land for developing a Special Economic Zone (SEZ), protests the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (Fimi). The Institute of Indian Foundrymen wrote to the Union mining ministry early this month, urging its intervention. There is no alternative area nearby for mining...

After 16 days of intensive Statewide campaigning and 47 days of dharna, thousands of workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in Rajasthan scored a significant victory. Led by the Suchana Evum Rozgar Ka Abhiyan, they entered into an agreement with the State government under which they would be entitled to the prevailing minimum wage for their day's work. Describing this outcome as “historic,” social activist...

NREGA workers lifted their 47 days long Satyagrah/Dharna after the Center and Rajasthan State governments agreed to their demand wages on basis of Minimum Wages Act 1948. As per the press releas of SR Abhiyan, the struggling organization, on November 11, Mrs Gandhi wrote to the Prime Minister communicating the consensus reached in the NAC meeting on October 23, that workers should be paid minimum wages as notified under the...