-The Hindu Business Line Who would know better than Shaktikanta Das, the former secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs, the ‘Good, Bad, and Ugly’ side of demonetisation and GST, the two factors that disrupted the balance sheets of not only the government and corporates but also that of the common man. Das would like to call it “positive disruption” as he believes that the turbulence caused was short-term, and that...
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Guardians of the grain -Chitrangada Choudhury
-The Hindu Over the years we have lost over a lakh varieties of native rice. One district in Odisha is rediscovering some of them It is a balmy winter morning when I meet Kamli Bataraa, an ebullient Adivasi farmer, at her home in Belugan, in southern Odisha’s Koraput district. There is a hum across the village from the threshing of just-harvested paddy. When I ask Kamli about the rice varieties she grows,...
More »Direct selling, adivasi style -Chitrangada Choudhury
-The Hindu Business Line At an organic market in Odisha, middle-class consumers get to interact with the producers of their food and appreciate traditional knowledge systems One Sunday morning in January, I visited an organic produce market located amidst dense bougainvillea creepers and rows of trees, on the grounds of the six-decade-old Christian Hospital in Bissamcuttack, a town in western Odisha’s Rayagada district. In policy and public imagination, Odisha, particularly its western districts...
More »GST from 1 July: Will farmers have to pay higher MRP on old fertiliser stocks worth Rs 9,500 cr?
-FirstPost.com The rollout of the goods and services tax (GST) starting 1 July has created a panic situation for the fertiliser industry mirroring a similar state of affairs a few weeks earlier with the consumer staple and home appliance manufacturers. An estimated 65 lakh tonne (lt) of bagged fertiliser material worth around Rs 9,500 crore already has the existing maximum retail price (MRP) printed on it. With the rise in GST rates,...
More »GST rate: Fertilizers to come under 12% tax slab, prices likely to rise -Sayantan Bera
-Livemint.com The GST Council has fixed a 12% GST rate on fertilizers, up from the current 4-8% rates, depending on raw materials used and in which states the products are sold New Delhi: India’s landmark tax reform, the goods and services tax (GST), may not be good news for farmers. Retail prices of commonly used fertilizers and micronutrients are likely to increase, not only raising the cost of cultivation but also leading...
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