Tag: Narendra Modi

Rabobank expects further downside for global sugar prices

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Carlos Mera Arzeno, Senior Commodity Analyst, Rabobank, said the global story is bearish for sugar because of excess sugar supply.

He does not expect any recovery in sugar prices going forward, in fact does not rule out a 10% downside.

The cabinet on Wednesday approved a proposal to give subsidies to sugarcane farmers for produce they sell to sugar mills, as part of efforts to help growers and companies struggling with a glut, a government source said

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration decided to give Rs 55 ($0.82) for every tonne of cane sold to the mills.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

India approves subsidy for cane growers to help sugar mills

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Indian cabinet approved on Wednesday a proposal to give subsidies to cane farmers for produce they sell to sugar mills, a government source said, as part of efforts to help growers and companies struggling with a glut.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration decided to give 55 rupees ($0.82) for every tonne of cane sold to the mills.

As a drop in local sugar prices to their lowest level in 28 months made it difficult for mills to pay farmers mandatory cane prices, a panel of ministers last month backed plans to give financial support to cane growers, an influential political lobby.

Reuters last month reported that the government was likely to subsidise an industry reeling from a supply glut and struggling to export because of low global prices.

New Delhi scrapped a 20% tax on exports in March, and in April fixed a quota for mills to export 2 million tonnes of sugar sales abroad.

Citing lower global sugar prices, mills said they would incur a loss of at least $150 a tonne.

As a drop in local sugar prices to their lowest level in 28 months made it difficult for mills to pay farmers mandatory cane prices, a panel of ministers last month backed plans to give financial support to cane growers.

“The incentive will help bring down rising cane arrears. It will change sentiment in the domestic market and help sugar prices recover,” said Prakash Naiknavare, managing director of the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories (NFCSF).

India is likely to produce a record 30.3 million tonnes of sugar in the 2017/18 season that ends on Sept. 30, up from 20.3 million tonnes in the previous year.

Industry officials last month said cane arrears in India could leap to a record 250 billion rupees ($3.8 billion) in the 2017/18 season.

Restive farmers have recently taken to the streets to protest against meagre incomes, forcing some state governments to write-off billions of dollars in farm debts.

The government is keen to placate India’s 50 million cane growers, who make up an influential political lobby, especially with national elections barely a year away in May 2019.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Village electrification definition has lost relevance, says Centre

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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A day after the Centre announced that all villages in India have been connected with power, the government on Monday said the definition of village electrification — of connecting at least 10% households in it — had lost relevance in view of the actual levels of electrification achieved.

A Union Power Ministry release said the average actual household electrification level in rural areas is more than 82% with variations across states.

“Definition of village electrification is a legacy issue which, though, mandates electrification of at least 10% households in a village,” it said.

“As per recent reports from the states, household electrification level in rural areas is more than 82%, ranging from 47 to 100% across various states. Had the definition been cause, such level of household electrification could not have been achieved.”

The Ministry said the variation in the level of household electrification across various regions and states is primarily because of differences in “size, heterogeneity in terms of topography, location, resources and also because of varying efforts made by the states”.

“The government has already moved out of this dichotomy and launched the Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (Saubhagya) to achieve universal household electrification in the country by December 31, 2018. Therefore, the debate over definition of village electrification in the present scenario has lost significance,” it said.

All villages in India have now been connected with electricity, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Sunday.

On Saturday evening, Leisang village in Manipur’s Senapati district became the last village to be connected to the national power grid.

The work of bringing power to India’s nearly 6 lakh villages had been undertaken under the government’s Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana.

As per government data, 1,236 villages are uninhabited and 35 have been notified as grazing reserves.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Parliamentary panel to visit border areas in Sikkim, Arunachal

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs will visit areas in Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh bordering China next month to look at the situation amid concerns that China had ramped up its military infrastructure in the Doklam region.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi, who is a member of the panel, would be among those visiting the two states, sources said. The panel is headed by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor.

The visit, expected to take place in the last week of May, will come weeks after informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping during which the two leaders decided to provide “strategic guidance” to their respective armies to strengthen communications and prevent another Doklam-like military stand-off along their long-winding disputed border.

Sources said the team would visit areas near the Indo-China border in the two states.

The panel has earlier discussed the 73-day military standoff with China at Doklam that ended in August last year after the two countries agreed to an “expeditious disengagement”. The stand off occurred after Indian side stopped the building of a road in the disputed tri-junction by the Chinese Army.

Congress has been attacking the government and saying that it is not capable of sending a strong message to China.

The party has said that a “full-fledged Chinese Military Complex” has come up in Doklam right up to 10m from Indian Army post and has also referred to China building a new road through south of Doklam.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Government launches scheme for procuring 2,500 MW aggregate power

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Centre will invite bids during this week for the procurement of aggregate power amounting to 2,500 MW on a competitive basis for three years from generators with commissioned projects but without power purchase agreements (PPA), under a scheme the pilot for which was launched on Monday.

A Power Ministry statement here said under the scheme, the aggregator, state-run PTC Ltd, would sign a three-year mid-term agreement for procurement of power from successful bidders, and power supply agreements with the distribution companies (discoms).

“Under the scheme, a single entity can be allotted maximum capacity of 600 MW. The scheme assures a minimum off-take of 55% of contracted capacity. The tariff will be fixed for three years without any escalation,” it said.

PFC Consulting Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of state-run Power Finance Corp (PFC) has been appointed as the nodal agency and power trader PTC Ltd as the aggregator.

“PFC Consulting is in process of inviting bids in the first week of May. The bidding will be conducted on the DEEP e-Bidding portal and with L1 matching for bucket filling without reverse auction,” it said.

The scheme is expected to revive power demand, the drop in which has affected generators who do not have PPAs, the statement added.

Meanwhile, all villages in India have now been connected with electricity, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Sunday.

On Saturday evening, Leisang village in Manipur’s Senapati district became the last village to be connected to the national power grid. As per official data, there were 18,452 villages without electricity in the country at the time of Modi’s taking office in May 2014.

The work of bringing power to India’s nearly six lakh villages had been undertaken under the government’s Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana.

The government has set the next target of providing electricity connections to over four crore rural and urban households by March 2019 under the Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (Saubhagya) initiative.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Farmers to stop supplies from June 1-10, says Kisan Mahasangh

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Rashtriya Kisan Mahasangh, an umbrella body of 110 farmers’ organisations, today said it would not supply farm products such as vegetables, grains and milk to cities across the country for 10 days from June 1 in protest against what it called the anti-farmer policies of the Central government.

A nation-wide Bharat banch would be held on June 10 till 2 pm, the group’s leaders, including former BJP minister Yashwant Sinha, told the media here.

“Farmers would stop sending from villages to cities produce such as crops, vegetables and milk from June 1 to June 10 all over the country. On June 6 they would observe a non-cooperation day,” Sinha said.

They also claimed that though the government had promised a minimum support price (MSP) that was to be 50% higher than the cost of production, farmers were yet to receive the higher prices.

The farmers’ organisations demanded that the MSP be increased to the cost of production plus 50% and a complete loan waiver from the government.

We have been demanding that MSP be 1.5 times the entire cost of production including the cost of land. Though the government had declared it in their last budget there is no specifications and it is not going to help us,” said Shiv Kumar Kakka, a farmer leader from Madhya Pradesh.

The organisations said by cost of production, they meant C2 and not A2+FL.

A2 includes expenses, in cash and kind, incurred on seeds, fertilisers, chemicals, labour, fuel and irrigation, while A2+FL covers actual costs plus value of unpaid family labour. C2 denotes A2+FL, along with costs for rentals and interest forgone on owned land and fixed capital assets respectively.

While congratulating the farmers’ long march in Maharshtra led by Left parties last month, Sinha lambasted the government for making “false promises”.

The promises and slogans of Prime Minister Narendra Modi were all a farce and the government was doing nothing to help farmers, he said.

“I can say that the Modi government has done nothing for them, not even fulfilled the promises written in the BJP manifesto. Whatever he (Modi) is promising is all a farce,” Sinha said.

The farmers also urged traders’ organisations to support their June 10 Bharat bandh.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

India, China to step up policy coordination

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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India and China will enhance policy coordination in their cooperation with neighbouring countries following the just-concluded informal summit here between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping, a top Chinese official has said.

Modi and Xi concluded their first ever two-day India-China informal summit yesterday raising hopes of improving relations in light of last year’s tensions on a host of issues including the Doklam military standoff.

The two sides will enhance policy coordination in their neighbourhood to discuss cooperation in the form of China India plus one or China India plus X , Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou said briefing newsmen here yesterday about the summit outcome.

Kong did not elaborate but his comments come in the backdrop of India’s concerns over increasing presence of Chinese investments in India’s neighbourhood specially infrastructure projects like ports.

China has been stepping up its investments in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the Maldives besides Pakistan where it is investing heavily in the USD 50 billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

India has protested to China over the CPEC as it traverses through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

India did not endorse the Belt and Road Initiative at the foreign ministers’ meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) at Beijing on April 24 which External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj also attended.

“The foreign ministers of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan reiterated their support for the BRI proposed by China,” said a statement issued by the SCO foreign ministers at the end of their one-day meeting.

India’s name was conspicuously absent from the list of countries that endorsed BRI of which CPEC is a part.

Significantly, Kong has played down India-China differences on the BRI stating that Beijing will not be too hard on it (BRI) as we feel that there is no fundamental difference between China and India on the issue of supporting interconnectivity,” he said.

He referred to India’s participation in the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) corridor which is also part of the BRI.

When it comes to connectivity our impression is that China and India do not have principle disagreement. Actually the two countries are working on the BCIM which is an important part of BRI and for the BCIM corridor, India does not oppose it. Actually, it is an important partner in this cooperation. At the same time BCIM is progressing very smoothly,” he said.

Kong also referred to India’s participation in the China-sponsored Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in which India is the second largest shareholder after China.

Kong said the two countries indeed are expanding their cooperation on connectivity.

After the summit, the two countries have agreed to develop a project jointly in war-torn Afghanistan, officials sources said after the summit.

This could send a strong signal of their cooperation in the neighbourhood.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

India says electrified all villages ahead of prime minister’s deadline

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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India has electrified all its villages 12 days ahead of a deadline set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government said on Sunday, which could give the ruling party a boost ahead of a general election in 2019.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Narendra Modi leaves for India after informal summit with Xi Jinping in China

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi left for India after holding the two-day informal summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the central Chinese city, Wuhan.

Modi had arrived in China on Thursday for the unprecedented informal summit with Xi.

The prime minister held one-on-one talks with Xi which is being seen as an effort by India and China to rebuild trust and improve ties that were hit by the 73-day-long Dokalam standoff last year.

The two leaders exchanged views on “solidifying” the India-China relationship and decided to issue strategic guidance to their respective militaries to strengthen communications and to build trust and understanding.

They recognised terrorism as common threat and committed to cooperate further on counter terrorism.

Modi also offered to host the next informal summit with Xi in India next year, a proposal which elicited a positive response from the Chinese president.

The two leaders began their informal meetings way back in 2014 when Xi was hosted by Modi at the Sabarmati Ashram of Mahatma Gandhi in Gujarat. They have met and interacted with each other in about a dozen international meetings since then.

This is the fourth visit of Modi to China after he came to power in 2014. He is again due to visit China to take part in the SCO summit to be held at Qingdao city on June 9-10.

Modi was seen off by Chinese Vice Foreign Minster, Kong Xuanyou and Chinese Ambassador to India, Luo Zhaohui and other officials.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow