Farmers in Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur district are taking to poultry business as the agriculture sector has suffered losses. Owing to increasing demand and the profit margins attached to it, growers have taken up poultry farming. To meet the shortage of poultry products in the domestic and international markets ahead of Christmas and New Year, many farmers have turned to rearing chickens. The export of poultry products has also increased by 49 percent. Om Yadav,...

India does not have enough surplus stocks of foodgrains for exports in the short-term and the country needs to boost its farm production significantly, to meet the expected rise in domestic demand by 2020, a top official of FCI said on Wednesday. "The country has adequate stock of foodgrains to meet our needs...there is not much surplus availability of the food grains for export in the short-term," Food Corporation of...

Sitting on a huge debt burden of close to Rs 2 lakh crore, West Bengal government's finances are the worst among five highly-indebted states in the country, a noted economist attached with the Indian Statistical Institute here has said. "Revenue deficit of the state is the highest among the five highly-indebted states of UP, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat," Abhirup Sarkar, the economist, told PTI. He said that for the...

Amid the heat and dust over high interest rates charged by microfinance institutions and reports of coercive recovery methods by some lenders in Andhra Pradesh, MFIs in eastern India are trying to strike a more cordial note with borrowers by lowering interest rates. At least three MFIs based out of Kolkata are on the verge of slashing lending rates by nearly 500 basis points to 19.1% per annum, on reducing balance...

Poverty and exploitation forced some tribal women in Eastern Uttar Pradesh to turn to Naxals, who proved to be no different. Leading a pathetic life after being sexually exploited and abandoned by the extremists, eight tribal women have now sought CM Mayawati's intervention to help in their rehabilitation. Hailing from the Naxal-affected Kaimur range, which includes Robertsganj, Mirzapur, Sonebhadra and Chandauli, these women had joined the banned outfits between 2000-2005. Most...