-The Hindu What is the Opposition-ruled States’ stand on reduction of value added tax to bring down petrol prices?  The story so far: Petrol is retailing at more than ₹100 per litre across India. While rising crude oil prices have added to the burden, the primary reason behind the steep increase in pump fuel prices over the last few years is the gradually rising Central Government's excise duty component. Currently, for every...

-Deccan Herald What the 2020 annual Periodic Labour Force Survey data reveals is that the situation remains grim The Covid-19 pandemic has only worsened what was already a joblessness crisis in early 2020. The third annual labour force survey (2019-20) by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), covering the period till June 30, 2020, told a grim story. Earlier, the NSSO had in 2017-18 reported that open unemployment had reached a 45-year...

-CivilSocietyOnline.com WHEN the Sri Lankan economy collapsed with a sigh recently, prominently sticking out of the debris was a failed attempt to take the island nation into full-scale organic agricultural production. The Rajapaksa government had virtually overnight ordered a switch to organic agriculture to save foreign exchange on the import of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. But going organic, instead of being the solution, became a bigger problem with food crops failing and the...

 -PTI/ Business Standard The government will not increase retail prices of urea and also provide adequate subsidies to ensure that the maximum retail prices of non-urea fertilisers remain at the present level, sources said India's fertiliser subsidy bill is likely to shoot up by 55 per cent to record Rs 2.5 lakh crore this fiscal as the government will provide additional funds to make up for the spike in cost from higher...

-Business Standard Experts feel this could keep prices of major farm commodities and products dependent on them, such as poultry and meat, at an elevated level for quite some time By the end of this financial year or perhaps even earlier, depending upon the crop cycle, India might be staring at a multi-year low closing inventory levels of several key farm commodities. Stocks of sugar, wheat, cotton and oilseeds both, with traders and...