Source: http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/singapore-a-strategic-partner-says-pm-modi/article24060681.ece "

Khadi & Village Industries Commission took the task of development of the beekeeping Industry with a view to uplift the financial status of people living in extremely interior rural areas by introducing and popularising modern beekeeping. The bee-keeping industry was organised in 1953 by KVIC, which later set up an institute in Pune to start "beekeeping in a modern and scientific way throughout the country".

Some problems plaguing the bee-keeping sector today (Issues):
* Use of pesticides: Pesticide residues in honeybees reduces/leads to a loss of their ability to smell, which means the bees are unable to return to their hives
* Fertiliser-intensive crop areas have witnessed a decline in bee population, subsequently leading to a pollination deficit
* The foreign bee: Out of four honeybee species that are cultivated in India, three are indigenous. One species introduced from abroad in the 1980s gives good yields of honey but is prone to lots of diseases
* Beekeepers say they are harassed by farmers who believe that bees sucking out nectar causes plants to fade
* Beekeepers have no support system; the few cooperatives that are there in this sector are controlled by "big business people"

You can link the content of this IE article ( http://indianexpress.com/article/explained/narendra-modi-farmers-seaweed-farming-beekeeping-cooperative-movement-pms-beekeeping-push-sweet-dream-is-wrapped-in-buzz-of-disappointment-4887681/ ) with this TH article ( http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/regulatory-upgrade/article19847478.ece ).
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All the statements are correct. "

"Executive Director M.D. Patra hinted there was scope for policy interest rates to ease further when he said the neutral rate is 1.25 per cent, which is lower than the 1.5-2 per cent regime that prevailed under the previous governor Raghuram Rajan."

• It is the estimated level of real interest rates at which the economy is growing at potential while inflation is under control. So the economy is chugging along without recession or overheating.
• This measure is the rate at which desired savings equal desired investments.
• If projected inflation is higher than the inflation target, then the actual real rates must be higher than the neutral real rate to ensure than monetary policy is anti-inflationary.
• It gives us some idea about whether monetary policy at any point of time is too tight or too loose.
• The empirical problem is that the real neutral rate of interest cannot be directly observed. It has to be estimated statistically. And it changes over time, depending on the inflation target of the central bank, the state of the business cycle and estimates of potential output.
• The Indian central bank has broadly been working over the past three years under the assumption that the neutral interest rate here is somewhere between 1.5-2%. That number has now been brought down to 1.25% - or around 50 basis points. Now the RBI has not changed its inflation target. That leaves us with estimates of potential growth. So here is an uncomfortable question: Does the Indian central bank now believe that India's potential growth rate is lower than earlier estimated?

Primary Source: Click Here ; Secondary Source: Click Here ;

Improvisation: http://www.thehindu.com/business/Economy/rbi-cuts-repo-rate-by-25-bps/article9183912.ece

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