In the financial year 2017-18 when tractor sales touched new heights, it was said by many of the NDA (viz. National Democratic Alliance) government supporters that rural demand has revived on account of adequate monsoon rainfall and higher minimum support prices for crops. Many economists and newspaper columnists also denied the existence of any rural distress. An alternative perspective, however, was also presented by rural economists like Dr. Himanshu who teaches...

-Moneycontrol.com The Rs 35,000 crore biscuit industry has several players, the top most being the Britannia and Parle, which accounts for 70 percent of the industry’s volume and revenues. Subdued rural growth has begun to show up in the cookies category of eatables, especially your tea-table humble biscuit plates. Reports have emerged that the staple biscuits category like Parle-G has slowed down in rural demand, although similar pains are not visible in...

-Newsclick.in Effective tax rate for Big Business in India was 26.3% although statutory rate is 34.6%, according to Budget documents. There is a proposal that corporate taxes should be reduced to 25% from 30%. According to reports, this has been mooted in a report submitted to the finance minister by a panel headed by Akhilesh Ranjan, member of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). However, data on corporate taxes put out...

  In the month of June this year, encephalitis related deaths in Bihar's Muzaffarpur district grabbed the headlines. Actually, most of the children, who were admitted or died at Shri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (SKMCH), hailed from East Champaran, Vaishali, Sitamarhi and Samastipur apart from Muzaffarpur. Unfortunately, till recently official data on the number of cases and deaths related to Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) was unavailable for...

-Down to Earth The court’s suggestions, like making MSP a legal right and increasing it to thrice the cost of production, are practical but need effort in implementation, say experts The Punjab and Haryana high court recently recommended that minimum support price (MSP) be made farmers’ legal right and it be set at three times the cost of production. But will these or a slew of other measures the court suggested address...