New Delhi Mar 23 PTI The government on Wednesday said it currently has no proposal to supply edible oils at subsidised rates to consumersIn a written reply to the Lok Sabha Minister of State for Food and Consumer Affairs Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti said At present there is no proposal by the Union Government to supply edible oils at subsidised rates to consumers The minister noted that the prices of essential commodities including edible oils are impacted by various factors such as demand-supply gap weather conditions logistics issues and international pricesDomestic production of edible oils is unable to meet the domestic demand The gap between the demand and supply of edible oils is around 56 per cent and is met through imports Increase in the international prices of edible oils have an impact on domestic prices of edible oils in the country she saidIn 2020-21 the domestic production of edible oils stood at 11151 lakh tonnes while imports were recorded at 13452 lakh tonnes and demand was for 24603 lakh tonnesLast year the all-lndia average domestic retail prices of groundnut oil stood at Rs 17628 per kg as against Rs 147 per kg in 2020Mustard oil prices increased to Rs 17067 per kg from Rs 12334 per kg while vanaspati rates soared to Rs 13102 per kg from Rs 9227 per kgRetail prices of soyabean oil increased to Rs 14726 per kg from 10276 per kg while sunflower oil jumped from Rs 11423 per kg to Rs 16436 per kg Palm oil prices went up to Rs 12828 per kg from Rs 9214 per kg during the period under reviewThe Government of India has been implementing a centrally-sponsored scheme National Food Security Mission- Oilseeds Oil palm NFSM-OSOP from 2018-19 to augment the availability of vegetable oils and to reduce the import of edible oils by increasing the production and productivity of oilseeds and area expansion of Oil Palm Tree Borne Oilseeds in the country she informedThe minister highlighted that the government has launched the National Mission on Edible Oils - Oil Palm NMEO-OP It has been launched to promote oil palm cultivation with a special focus on the Northeastern states and Andaman and Nicobar IslandsIn order to improve the domestic availability of edible oils and to keep the prices under control the government has been rationalising the duty structure on edible oils during 2021-22 to reduce the burden of high prices on common man PTI MJH MJH RUJ RUJ

New Delhi Feb 24 PTI Stressing the need for reducing imports of edible oils and pulses Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday asked corporates to come forward and help farmers in increasing domestic production of these essential food items Addressing a webinar on positive impact of the Union Budget 2022 on the agriculture sector the Prime Minister exhorted Indian business houses to help in branding and promotion of Indian millets He also talked about a huge opportunity for the corporate world in the field of nano-fertiliser which is going to be a game changer The Prime Minister called upon startups and private investors to create a pan-India network of soil testing labs and said there is a need to create awareness among farmers so that they keep getting their farm soils tested on a regular basis Modi said the focus of the Union Budget 2022-23 is on making Indian agriculture modern and smart and highlighted the seven-pronged strategy outlined in the document presented in Parliament on February 1 by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman He further said There is a huge demand for pulses and oil seeds in our country The corproate world should come forward This is an assured market for you corporates What is the need of importing The businesses the Prime Minister said can have arrangement with farmers to purchase pulses and oil seeds He noted that agriculture insurance system provides protection against crop losses There should be a study of Indias food requirement Modi said as he emphasised on meeting all food requirements through domestic production instead of imports He said the government is targeting to increase domestic production of edible oil by 50 per cent in the coming years It is to be noted that India imports 60-65 per cent of its edible oil requirement As per industry data the countrys edible oil import bill shot up to Rs 117 lakh crore in 2020-21 oil year ending October 2021 compared to Rs 72000 crore in the year ago period Modi said the governments objective is to increase farmers income and reduce input cost Referring to the Budget he said it focuses on making Indian agriculture modern and smart Seven main avenues including promotion of natural farming along Ganges have been suggested in the Budget to achieve the goal he added The Prime Minister called upon agriculture universities and farm scientists to make efforts to create awareness about natural and organic farming He highlighted that in the last seven years his government has initiated many new systems and improved the old ones for the entire agriculture value chain from seed to market Modi said the agriculture budget has increased manifold in just six years and farms loans have also been increased by 25 times in seven years PTI MJH NKD MKJ

New Delhi Dec 21 PTI TMC floor leader Derek OBrien was suspended from the Upper House of Parliament on Tuesday for the remaining part of the Winter session after he threw a Rajya Sabha rule book at the Chair Sasmit Patra who was in the Chair said the TMC MP had raised a point of order and the deputy chairman duly responded to it A little later OBrien flung the rule book furiously in the direction of the Chair Patra observed The rule book would have hit the chair or secretary general or officials sitting at the table he said The TMC MP was suspended after the House passed a motion moved by Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs V Muraleedharan in this regard The Winter session is scheduled to end on December 23 PTI MJH MBI NKD CS SMN

New Delhi Dec 20 PTI Registration of housing properties in Mumbai municipal region fell by 18 per cent in November to 7582 units but numbers during January-November jumped over twofold to 102232 units the highest in last one decade according to Knight Frank The registration of homes stood at 7582 units in November last year During January-November 2020 46052 homes were registered Registration data is of transactions made in both primary and secondary re-sale residential markets Mumbai city MCGM region property sale registrations have crossed the 100000 mark for the first time in a decade The earlier high during the last 10 years was 80746 units in 2018 Knight Frank India said in a statement The consultant attributed the fall in registrations number in November 2021 to a lower stamp duty rate of 2 per cent in the same month last year Shishir Baijal Chairman Managing Director Knight Frank India said The consumer sentiment in Mumbai housing market remains strong The growth rate has moderated when compared to the year ago period when market was buoyant on account of the lowest applicable stamp duty rate window The demand enablers in the form of low house prices low home loan interest rate and new project launches continue to entice homebuyers he added The threat of new COVID-19 variants and response from healthcare system will be crucial in determination of market activity level in near future Baijal said In Mumbais primary housing market Macrotech Developers Lodha group Godrej Properties Oberoi Realty Hiranandani group Kalpataru Ltd Tata Housing Shapoorji Pallonji Piramal Realty Mahindra Lifespace Developers Rustomjee group and K Raheja group are major players PTI MJH MR MR

New Delhi Nov 18 PTI The government on Thursday said retail prices of pulses have substantially stabilised in the last five months with rates of gram tur urad and moong either declining or remaining stable compared to the last year on the back of its various measures to boost imports and check hoarding The CPI inflation for pulses has also seen a consistent decline during the last five months from 1001 per cent in June 2021 to 542 per cent in October 2021 according to an official statement The pulses inflation rate was as high as 1834 per cent in October 2020 Similarly the WPI inflation for pulses has declined from 1156 per cent in June 2021 to 536 per cent in October 2021 The retail prices of pulses have substantially stabilised in the past five months from June 2021 As on date the prices of gram tur urad and moong have either declined or remained stable in comparison with last year the statement said The government said that stability in the retail prices of pulses has been achieved on account of pre-emptive and proactive measures taken by it such as taking import of tur urad and moong from restricted to Free category with effect from May 15 2021 The free regime in respect of tur and urad has been extended the last date for Bill of Lading is December 31 2021 and for customs clearance it is January 31 2022 The import policy measures have resulted in substantial increase in import of tur urad and moong as compared to the corresponding period for the past two years the statement said During April-November period of 2021-22 fiscal pulses imports are estimated at 1511147 tonnes compared to 1387913 tonnes in the same period of 2020-21 and 1531534 tonnes in the corresponding period of 2019-20 fiscal November figures for 2019-20 and 2020-21 are for the full November whereas for 2021-22 it is up to November 15 2021 it added Import of tur arhar rose to 427796 tonnes during April-November of 2021-22 from 171125 tonnes in the year-ago period Shipments of urad increased to 356178 tonnes from 225548 tonnes while moong imports increased to 136007 tonnes from 22051 tonnes during the period under review Masur imports fell to 459839 tonnes during April-November of this fiscal from 833315 tonnes in the corresponding period of last year The government imposed stock limit on all pulses except moong under the Essential Commodities Act 1955 on July 02 2021 The stock limit order has had a salutary effect in terms of softening of prices as such no further extension beyond October 31 2021 was required However as a measure of caution monitoring of stocks through web portal continues the statement said Among the major pulses Indias import dependence on masur is high and domestic availability and prices are vulnerable to the overseas production To soften the impact of higher international prices on domestic consumers the government reduced the basic import duty on masur to zero and AIDC Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Cess to 10 per cent from July 27 2021 As a measure of market intervention Masur from the buffer has been made available to the StatesUTs at discounted price for supplies through retail outlets in order to ensure availability to consumers at affordable prices This step has been further augmented with release of Masur stocks in the open market to soften the prices the statement said Now the protocol for fumigation of pulses at port of arrival has also been streamlined with penalty charges waived till March 31 2022 the government said adding that this would have a further positive impact on cooling retail prices of masur PTI MJH MR MR

New Delhi Aug 31 PTI Registration of housing properties in Mumbai municipal region more than doubled to 6784 units in August compared with the year-ago period driven by fresh sales during the current month according to Knight Frank India Mumbai BMC region Churchgate to Dahisar and Colaba to Mulund recorded property registrations of 6784 units in August 2021 registering a growth of 157 per cent Year-on-Year YoY compared to August 2020 the consultant said in a statement The registrations for August 2021 were also 16 per cent higher compared to the pre-pandemic period of August 2019 Overwhelmingly 92 per cent of the registered homes were fresh sales amounting to 6241 units that were sold in the month of August 2021 New home sales grew from 53 per cent in July 2021 42 per cent in June 2021 while in April was as low as 7 per cent Knight Frank said The percentage contribution of women buyers to the total registrations remained steady at about 4 per cent totaling 271 registrations The consultant also highlighted that the state governments collections from stamp duty for August 2021 have crossed Rs 400 crore mark which is close to the 2019 monthly average Shishir Baijal Chairman Managing Director Knight Frank India Real estate sales in Mumbai have bounced back strongly after the pandemic Going by the rise in fresh sales during the month which has consistently grown since April along with the significant rise of sales of homes priced up to Rs 1 crore we can safely say that the real demand has put the woes of the second wave behind he added With the upcoming festive season and the expected economic revival along with improved vaccinations Baijal expects this sales momentum to grow stronger We believe that the time is ripe for the state government to offer further concessions to improve homeownership especially amongst women to provide a fillip to this category of homebuyers he added PTI MJH MJH SHW SHW