Govt cuts interest rates on small savings schemes effective from April 1 The government has announced a cut in small savings rates by 50-100 basis points for the first quarter of the new financial year. This is the second time that interest rates on small savings schemes have been cut in the past one year. In the April-June quarter of 2020-21, the government had slashed rates of small savings schemes by 70-140 bps. With the latest cut, interest rates on these schemes have been reduced by a total of 120-240 bps in one year. The rate of interest on Public Provident Fund (PPF) has declined from 7.1 per cent earlier to 6.4 per cent now. The return on Senior Citizens Savings Schemes has come down from 7.4 per cent to 6.5 per cent and that on National Savings Certificates has been reduced from 6.8 per cent to 5.9 per cent.
Mutual funds net sellers of Indian equities first time in 7 years
Mutual funds (MFs) are set to be net sellers of Indian equities for the first time in the past seven financial years, having sold stocks worth about Rs 1.27 trillion so far in 2020-21 (FY21), making it the highest net sales on record in a financial year. MFs had been net buyers in the previous six financial years, including purchases of over Rs 1.41 trillion in FY18, Rs 88,152 crore in FY19, and Rs 91,814 crore in FY20.
DFI employees may get shield against ill-informed probe, prosecution The central government will exempt the proposed development finance institution (DFI) employees from what it called ‘ill-informed prosecution and investigation’, offering them protection from both the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate. A government source said the Bill being vetted by the law ministry will also offer upfront government support, if necessary, to the institution to hedge its
updated: Mar 16 2021, 10:15 ist
Farmers have been demanding APMC reforms for 30 years, but the Modi government’s farm laws – central laws on a state subject, rammed through without consultations with either the states or even Parliament are not reforms to help farmers but at enabling a corporate takeover of the agrarian economy, veteran journalist and Magsaysay awardee P Sainath tells DH’s Anitha Pailoor.
Farmers have been in the news for a few months now. They were so for a while even in 2016, when the government said it would help double farmers’ income by 2022…
The first thing I recall is that they declared that they would double farmers’ incomes by 2022 without once clarifying whether they meant a doubling of nominal income or real income. If it’s nominal income, everybody’s incomes would double by 2022. If it’s real income, that is a very huge task. And it’s very clear that as of now if there is any difference, the difference in real income actually
Farm law protests: Farmer unions call for Bharat Bandh on March 26
They also announced a week-long plan to mark the completion of four months of their stir. Updated Mar 10, 2021 · 11:24 pm File photo: Farmers and agricultural workers arrive to attend a rally against farm laws, in Barnala, northern state of Punjab, India, February 21, 2021. | Reuters/Danish Siddiqui
Farmer unions on Wednesday called for a countrywide strike, or Bharat bandh, on March 26, the day their protest against the three farm laws at Delhi’s borders completes four months, reported PTI.
Farmer leader Buta Singh Burjgill said the farmers, along with trade unions, will also protest against the increase in fuel prices and privatisation of Railways on March 15. “We will observe a complete Bharat bandh on March 26, when our protest against the three farm laws completes four months,” he said. “The peaceful bandh will remain effective from morning till evening.”
TIME magazine’s cover features women leading India’s farmer protests
Some protestors told ‘Time’ that their numbers increased after the chief justice of India said that elderly people and women should return home. Updated Mar 05, 2021 · 09:40 pm The cover of the magazine s March edition. | Twitter/TIME
Women farmers protesting against the Centre’s three agricultural laws at Delhi’s borders for over three months have featured on the international cover of
Time magazine’s March edition. The magazine tweeted the cover story on Friday, a day before the protest enters its 100th day.
“This law will kill us, will destroy what little we have,” Amandeep Kaur, a farmer from Talwandi in Punjab, told the magazine. Punjab Kisan Union member Jasbir Kaur Nat, who is mobilising farmers at the Tikri protest site, said women are often not seen as farmers. “Their labor is immense but invisible. Women are changing women here. They are claiming t