India May Import Wheat, Months After PM's Promise To "Feed World": Report
NDTV
Even before PM Modi's pledge to "feed the world", a record-breaking heatwave that started in March was threatening Indian wheat output.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi boldly declared that India was ready to "feed the world" after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Less than four months later, the government needs to consider grain imports.
Even before PM Modi made his pledge, a record-breaking heatwave that started in March was threatening Indian wheat output. That cut production and pushed up local prices, making everyday life more expensive for hundreds of millions of Indians that use the grain to make staple foods like naan and chappatis.
Indications that a bumper wheat harvest wasn't going to eventuate prompted the government to restrict exports in mid-May. State reserves have declined in August to the lowest level for the month in 14 years, according to Food Corporation of India, while consumer wheat inflation is running at close to 12%.
The looming shortage and rising prices now have authorities making preparations to buy from overseas. Government officials are discussing whether to cut or abolish a 40% import tax on wheat to help flour millers in some regions to import grain, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified as the talks are private. This was first reported by Reuters.
The BJP, Vishnu Deo Sai said, has shown huge respect to Ambedkar, no matter who headed the government -- Atal Bihari Vajpayee or Narendra Modi.
Shyam Benegal, who burst on the scene with his first film "Ankur" in 1974, was a chronicler of India's times and politics.
A second-cousin brother of the late legend, actor-film-maker Guru Dutt, Shyam Benegal was 90 and breathed his last at a private hospital in Mumbai. He is survived by his wife Nira and their daughter Pia.
The union government has scrapped the 'no-detention policy' for classes 5 and 8 in schools governed by it allowing them to fail students who do not clear the year-end exams, according to officials.
"Adani Defence Systems & Technologies Ltd (ADSTL) has signed a share purchase agreement to acquire 85.8 per cent shareholding in Air Works India (Engineering) Private Ltd," a company statement said.
Several domestic carriers, between October and November, received hundreds of "hoax" messages or calls on their official communication channels including on social media.
Former Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's BJD has made it clear that they are not against Electronic Voting Machines, questioning instead the integrity of the election process.
Lavi Pal alias Rahul Saini was arrested after an encounter in which he was injured on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday.
Seven Indians were injured in the deadly car-ramming attack in the eastern German city of Magdeburg.
The man, identified as Zakir, gesticulated to a biker to help him, even as the truck kept accelerating, showed the 36-second clip.
All the accused were arrested in November and December after reviewing data from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Center (I4C), said Priyanshu Dewan, ACP (cyber).