Rituraj Tiwari
India spends over Rs 70,000 crore to import about 15 MT edible oil to meet its annual requirement of 25 MT, making it one of the biggest buyers of the cooking medium. The need for a “zero edible oil import” plan was discussed by commerce minister Piyush Goyal at an inter-ministerial meeting.
The prices of onions, which had touched Rs 80 per kg in August and September, have again shot up to Rs 100 a kg in some places due to a shortage, triggered by unseasonal rainfall leading to crop damage in the main onion growing zones in Maharashtra. Traders have been demanding to liberalise these norms for a faster import of onions to India.
At present there is a helpline number for farmers to register complaints and seek information, but there have been complaints galore that farmers have not been getting any response from the helpline.
CM Kamal Nath promised full support to industry, saying the state was already taking far reaching steps to transform the business climate and was eager to get new ideas from industrialists.
The PM Kisan scheme provides cash assistance up to Rs 1600 for new LPG connection and subsidy is transferred subsequently to more than 800 million Aadhar seeded bank accounts on every refill. The Ujjwala scheme uses an Aadhar-based payment mechanism.
According to the first advance estimate released last month, the agriculture ministry is estimating an output of 6.1 million tonnes.
The standard guidelines cover all the commercial varieties of potatoes, considering shape, skin colour and flesh colour.
Plans to train, ensure easy credit and provide support to 10,000 farmer producer organisations.
PSU places a ceiling of $352/tonne for 2,000 tonne, even as onions in government’s buffer dry up.
The development comes ahead of the assembly election in the food bowl state of Haryana.
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