Onion to play hide and seek till October even as tomato plunges to ground
NEW DELHI, Aug 21: After the Centre restricted the export of onion by clamping
a 40 per cent tax to improve supplies in the domestic market and rein in the
rising prices of the bulb, the traders have stopped the auctions in protest,
which will harm the farmers' interests. The prices shot up because the Government
stocks are meagre and the crop was also poor this time due to adverse weather,
leading to short supply.
The rabi crop was damaged by bad weather conditions like hailstorms in the
major producing areas of Maharashtra. Rabi is usually harvested in April-June.
The maximum onion production is achieved in rabi season, crossing 60 % of the
total produce in a year. The next season of kharif crop harvest comes in October-November.
Till then the prices will bob up and down. Because the supply situation will
be erratic due to the 'uncertain' curbs on exports and the limitations on procurement.
The wholesale price in Nashik, onion's heartland, was Rs 1,370 per quintal
on August 1 which shot up to Rs 2,050 by August 20. There were times during
distress sale the bulb being sold for Rs 500 to Rs 700 per quintal.
On Monday, the National Cooperative Consumers' Federation (NCCF) outlets began
sale of onions at a subsidised price Rs 25 per kg in Delhi and some other selected
centres, by releasing buffer stocks. It had also sold tomato at subsidised prices.
The Ministry of Finance had imposed the duty on Saturday. And on Monday the
traders in retaliation closed onion auctions indefinitely in the APMCs in Nashik
district, Maharashtra, which is the largest producer of the commodity. The traders
complain that the export contracts are signed in advance and the new tax will
be a burden on them.
The Nashik District Onion Traders Association has asked the traders not to
take part in onion auctions till the Centre withdraws the new levy.
The onion farmers and traders alike are holding protests in Nashik against
the new export tax. They held a sit-in agitation on Nashik-Aurangabad highway
on Monday.
Meanwhile, Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said procurement of onion at
a never-before price of Rs 2,410 per quintal (previously the price was Rs 1,200
per quintal) began on Tuesday afternoon by the NCCF and the National Agricultural
Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED ). Now two lakh tonnes extra
will be purchased to raise the buffer level to five lakhs.
Goyal asked the farmers not to resort to panic selling. Farmers, on their part,
are worried if export stops the prices will crash to an unremunerative level
and there will be distress sale. They claim that Rs 20 is spent on producing
a kg of the bulb and, considering all factors, they demand a price of Rs 40
per kg.
The onion is following tomato which hit a sky-high price of about Rs 260 a
kg and stayed there for a couple of months. The retail price of tomato had been
Rs 20 to 40 per kg at most places in the country for the past few years. Now,
towards the end of August, the plummeting tomoto has already dropped below Rs
60 a kg.
TAILPIECE: Here is a lesson for all when the prices go up: Maharashtra
Minister Dada Bhuse told PTI: “When you use a vehicle worth Rs 10 lakh, you
can buy the produce at a higher rate by Rs 10 or Rs 20 than the retail rate.
Those who cannot afford to buy onion, it would make no difference if they do
not eat it for two-four months... Sometimes onion fetches rates of Rs 200 per
quintal while sometimes it attracts Rs 2,000 per quintal."
Two days earlier, in a similar incident in the area, a domestic help was bitten by a pet dog in the lift when she was going for work.
Tailpiece: Sometimes appearing to outnumnber men and women on the streets, the stray dogs are turning more and more daring with sections of anti-social elements out there to feed and protect them in order to find a window for their unfulfilled love! There is an all-pervading feeling of lack of authority.
Ankit Tiwari had told the employee that “instructions had been received
from the Prime Minister’s Office to conduct an enquiry” and reopen the
“already disposed of” case and asked him to appear before the ED office
at Madurai on October 30, DVAC said. The doctor was allegedly
threatened with arrest and told to pay a bribe of Rs 3 cr to avoid the ED
probe, which was later negotiated down to Rs 50 lakh.
Tailpiece: We are made to believe RBI, CBI, ED, Judiciary as sacrosanct
and all others like railways, transport, revenue, education, PWD
departments are composed of us the mortals, absolutely corrupt! As if in
the sacrosanct places the angels descend from the heavens to work in the
night and fly away before day-break! Let's be true to ourselves, we are all
cut from the same cloth.
Apart from cash, Gill had also taken three planes as bribe and two of them
were leased out to Redbird Aviation Academy. With the result, flying
schools compromised on safety requirements and trainers met with
accidents several times.
Five people were arrested from a banquet hall in Sector 51 Noida on Thursday
where they were called to hold a rave party in a trap laid by the animal
rights group, PFA. They named Yadav but he was not present.
Betting through Dubai-based Mahadev Book in India is conducted through a countrywide network. Probes reveal that the online gambling is worth several millions and top politicians, officials and celebs have been beneficiaries.
TAILPIECE: Polling dates for some States are round the corner. Top
politicians have begun their acrimonious debate who looted more, even as
Mahadev is washing their dirty laundry in the open ghat. Come what may,
one needs to seize power to amass "thy wretched pelf!" One simple
question is, why else one should spend lakhs or crores to get elected! A
question every Indian should ask to oneself at least once a day!
His inaction amounts to defeating the rights of the people of the State to
welfare measures sought to be implemented through the Bills, the Kerala
Government's petition submitted, while the State of Tamil Nadu remarked
that its "Governor is acting as a political rival."
Tailpiece: Coming up back to back, the petitions in their totality seem to question the provision of Raj Bhavan, and not motives of a Governor as a
person.
Hundreds of cars piled up behind the wreckage of crashes occurring one
after other in backing up - continuous crashes to the rhythm of metallic
clanks and bangs back to back. According to reports, some ops required
'Jaws of Life' to pull apart the mangled cars to save lives inside.
The pilots struggled with Emerson to thwart a shut-off as he reached for
the T-handles (see pix). Later he admitted to police he had taken
psychedelic mushrooms and had a "nervous breakdown."
Doctors reasoned how the incidence of heart attacks is spiking over time and
advise the simple way to play safely is to take a break and rehydrate
yourself.
But how come ten people, including children, die of cardiac arrest at
Garba in 24 hours, and that at different places of Gujarat? Garba had been going on
for six days, and every year it is celebrated.
Shocking news from the UK: Leading grocers have started bribing policemen with free food and drinks to persuade them to take action against shoplifters.
Shoplifting has risen by about 27 per cent in 10 major cities across the UK
this year. The cost of retail crime last year was $2.15 billion. Besides, “We
are seeing organised gangs threatening staff with weapons and emptying
stores," Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium,
said. Data shows that the police failed to respond to 73 per cent of serious
retail crimes that included assault and abuse of workers, apart from
shoplifting.
Harris said hip-hop is “the ultimate American art form” that “shapes every
aspect of American popular culture.” “Hip-hop culture is American
culture,” she said in a talk at her official residence at the US Naval
Observatory in Washington, D.C.
The social media had mixed reaction. There was much appreciation that
she dances better than any VP in American history. But some called her
"moves" as “cringe” while others did not like her pink pants - "pink pants
don’t look good.” In fact, her ensembles have always been incongruous.
"Let’s see how the (Governor's) Vice-Chancellors are given salary."
Mamata's extreme statements will put the Marxist Government in Kerala,
which is also facing similar issues, to shame. Has she begun the
countdown for a war on the streets?
It's true Mamata has come to see a conspiracy to demolish the established systems across the country, but lacks the ability to foresee what exactly is being pushed.
Brandishing a sword, Mahant Paramhans told reporters on Tuesday he
himself will behead MK Stalin's son for his remarks against Sanatan
Dharma in case nobody came forward to accept his offer he made in his
video. Udhayanidhi reacted to the saint's Monday video, "I will speak
more. I am the grandson of the artist who put his head on the rail track for
Tamil Nadu."
Somanath elaborated, "I am an explorer. I explore the Moon. I explore the inner
space. So it's a part of the journey of my life to explore both science and
spirituality. So I visit many temples and I read many scriptures. So try to find the
meaning of our existence and our journey in this cosmos. So it's a part of the
culture that we are all built to explore, find out the inner self as well as outer
self. So for the outer, I do science, for the inner I come to temples." (See videos)
Rao the mathematical legend had fathered the path-breaking Rao-Blackwell
theorem, one of the most important theorems in mathematical statistics, at the
age of 25. That brought him global fame. He is also famous for his Cramér-Rao
Bound inequality theorem relating to quality of estimators in statistics which has
had a profound bearing on applications of modern economics and several other
diverse fields. Simply put, with the pioneering statistician computation became a
tool to analyse even socio-economic challenges of modern times.
The alleged incident has received such a flash publicity that a standardised
city's hugely middle class population will have second thoughts about eating
outside for some time. Now everything on the table looks suspicious!
“All subjects directly connected to the people should be shifted to the State List. Particularly the subject of education. Only if this is done can cruel exams like NEET be abolished,” Stalin said. Education was moved from the State List to the Concurrent List with the 42nd Constitution Amendment made by the Central Government in 1976.
Decentralisation has been at the core of Tamil politics since the times of CN Annadurai. Stalin indicated there will be political changes in the offing.
TAILPIECE: While the Centre and the States are at loggerheads, it takes a
different cognitive acumen to know that entrance tests are not the way for
students' admission to courses.
