-The Hindu Mumbai among biggest laggards with 3.8% growth in collections against a target of 13.3% Mumbai: The Income Tax Department may miss the revenue collection target for this fiscal going by the numbers for the first two quarters. Out of 18 income tax regions in the country, only five — Delhi, Uttar Pradesh (E), Uttar Pradesh (W), Odisha and the North-East — have managed to achieve the revenue goals in the...

-The Telegraph With an overload of cane price arrears, V Kumara Swamy warns of a looming crisis for farmers Until a few years ago, you could tell the seasons in western Uttar Pradesh when you drove down its highways just by looking at the standing crops. In winter, one would see an unending landscape of swaying wheat and mustard, during summer it would be all sugarcane and paddy. These days, almost through the...

-The Indian Express The sugar industry faces a crisis of plenty. Unless bold steps are taken quickly, it can prove costly to the Modi government. The sugar sector is heading for a major crisis of plenty. India will begin the sugar season (October to September) with a sugar stock of about 10 million metric tonnes (MMT). The industry’s production estimate for 2018-19 is 35.5 MMT, up from 32.3 MMT in 2017-18, against...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Three steps in quick succession have suggested that the BJP might be trying to build a social coalition of Dalits and Other Backward Classes to complement its traditional base among the upper castes in the run-up to the general election. On Thursday, the government managed to get a bill passed unanimously in the Lok Sabha to grant constitutional status to the National Commission for Backward Classes. Twenty-four hours earlier,...

-Firstpost.com The recent increases in minimum support prices have attracted two criticisms from two opposite sides. One is that this is less than what farmers deserve, the second is that this is populist and ignores larger macro side effects. The increase in fair remunerative price for sugarcane has also been criticised for not adequately addressing the woes of the sugar sector. Ramesh Chand, member, agriculture, NITI Aayog talks to Firstpost on...