Mumbai, Feb 6 () Bankers and analysts were positively surprised with the slew of liquidity-enabling measures announced in an otherwise expected RBI monetary policy that left the key rates unchanged at 5.15 per cent. The market has taken the long-term repos worth Rs 1 lakh crore as the biggest developmental and regulatory step that came out of the blue, they said. So is the CRR buffer benefits for lending to the growth-oriented sectors such as to housing, auto and small units. The Reserve Bank announced long-term repurchase agreements (repos) of one-year and three-year tenors of appropriate sizes, totalling Rs 1 lakh crore at the policy repo rate, from the fortnight beginning on February 15. Bankers and analysts are unanimous that these measures would infuse liquidity on one hand and ensure cheaper credit flow to the needy-segments of the economy. SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumar said the policy is "a statement of intent" carefully using a repository of policy novelties to address the current delicate balance of growth and inflation. "While keeping rates on hold was anticipated, the bouquet of developmental and regulatory steps is a positive surprise to the financial ecosystem. "Long-term repos for 1-year and 3 year at the repo rate, will bring down cost of funds for banks and will facilitate better transmission within the current constraints of downward rigidity of deposit rates," Kumar said. Similarly, exemption of CRR maintenance for all additional loans given for retail loans like auto, housing, and to MSMEs is positive for all banks and to these targeted sectors. This will also help lower the cost of funds. Extension of date of commencement of commercial operations of project loans for commercial realty by one more year without downgrading the asset classification will allow realtors to focus on project completion. Extending the date of recasting MSME loans will also help the sector to navigate the current downturn and is a logical corollary of budget announcement, Kumar said. Welcoming the policy, Icra's Aditi Nayar said the dovish tone along with reiteration that policy space is available for future action is a big positive. "We anticipate that the stance will be maintained as accommodative as long as RBI perceives the output gap to be negative, regardless of the level of inflation. So we no longer expect the stance to be changed to neutral in the next few policies," she said. Zarin Daruwala of Standard Chartered Bank India said, "The MPC delivered a strong pro-growth policy in the face of sluggish growth and high inflation." Cash reserve ratio leeway for fresh retail and MSME loans, a one-time permission to extend restructuring of MSME loans and concessional one-to-three year repo funds are all positive steps to bring down lending rates, she said. Crisil's Krishnan Sitaraman said, "The move to exempt banks from CRR requirements for incremental loans to auto, housing and MSMEs will have a salutary effect on channeling of credit to these sectors and can play a role in addressing the sluggishness seen in these sectors." Similarly, the extension of date of commencement of commercial operations by one more year for project loans for commercial realty will bring some relief to projects which are genuinely delayed due to business reasons. This can arrest the fresh slippages in this segment. Linking MSME loans to external benchmarks will accelerate interest rate transmission and lighten interest burden. Also, extending the one-time restructuring window for them will bring some more relief to the sector and keep sectoral NPAs under control. Terming the RBI policy as "quite progressive and forward looking" A K Das of Bank of India said the long-term repos open up ways to transmit the signal rate changes. Measures for realty and MSMEs and CRR exemption for incremental retail and housing loans are growth-oriented and will give an impetus to bank lending, he added. Describing the policy as a "whatever it takes" moment for the country and policymakers, B Prasanna of ICICI Bank said these steps show willingness of MPC to think laterally. "The crowning glory of all measures is the provision of long-term repos at the repo rate that is intended towards facilitating better transmission in the bond and loan markets. Besides lowering rates in the short end of the sovereign curve it is also likely to lower corporate bond yields, deposit rates and lending rates," he said. Sunil Kumar Sinha of India Ratings said, "If the monsoon does not turn out to be normal, then the inflation forecast can have adverse impact on the food inflation which is already witnessing pressure from rising prices of items such as pulses and coarse cereals." "Given this, despite continuing with the accommodative stance, RBI is unlikely to tinker with the policy rate till the second quarter of FY21," he said. BEN ABMABM

Bankers, analysts hail liquidity boosting policy measures

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Depending on where you are in the world, you'll find a different version of <keyword id="65553" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Bacon">bacon</keyword>.</li><li>In England, your bacon will be a leaner but still juicy cut from the back of the pig and cured to perfection.</li><li>We visited <a href="https://www.buttsfarmrarebreeds.co.uk/">The Butts Farm</a> in South Cerney, Gloucestershire, to see how bacon is made from the meat of Gloucestershire Old Spots.</li><li>This is one of the oldest breeds in the <keyword id="6354868" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="UK">UK</keyword> and is renowned for having a tender, marbled meat - so what better way to taste it than in the form of bacon?</li></ul>Following is a transcript of the <keyword id="21654" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="video">video</keyword>.Claudia Romeo: Depending on where you are in the world, you will find a different version of bacon. In the US, you'll have a savory piece of pork belly that's been cured and smoked. As an Italian, my go-to bacon is pancetta, dry-cured dices of pork belly. Here in England, your bacon will be a leaner, but still juicy cut of meat from the back of the pig cured to perfection. Today, we're in South Cerney, Gloucestershire, and we are at The Butts Farm, a farm that specializes in rare breeds. What we're going to see today is bacon made from Gloucestershire Old Spots. They're one of the oldest breeds here in the UK, and they're renowned for having a tender, marbled meat. So what better way to taste it than in the form of bacon?Thank you. Hello, friend. Compared to more commercial pigs that feed on high protein and cereal, an Old Spot follows a low-protein diet, complemented with grass, worms, and whatever they can munch away at here at the farm.Judy Hancox: The Gloucestershire Old Spots also have a lot of fat on them naturally. That's good. You don't have to eat the fat, but when you cook it, you've got the fat running through the meat, which gives you the flavor.Claudia: All right.Carl: This is what we're gonna be working with.Claudia: Yep. This section is cut from the top of the leg to the fourth rib and, on the other side, the first flat bone across the thigh and the leg. Carl pierces the skin a few times to allow the salt to get right into the center of the bacon. He tells me that the best bacon is one that is cured within the first week after slaughtering the pig. This is to avoid tough skin, which the curing would make even tougher and would take all the moisture out of the meat. Drawing most of the moisture out is, however, our way to go with our dry cure today. Carl uses fine sea salt, which he prefers as it gets right into the meat much quicker than coarse salt.Carl: So you want to get all the cure mix into the center. With it not having the nitrates in, it does take that little bit longer to cure. You want the salt to have contact first, 'cause that will just give you the right way to cure.Claudia: Oh, wow, that's quite a lot of salt.Carl: It is. So. [Claudia chuckles]Claudia: So, how many kilos is that?Carl: That's 5. For this much, you'd probably only need 2, 2 1/2 kilos of salt. But it cures better if you just get that caked in salt.Claudia: All right.Carl: It doesn't really absorb more of it. It just seals. Just get nice and covered. So, that provides the base of the cure. So that will instantly start drawing out the moisture, changing that product from pork into the bacon product.Claudia: Carl leaves a little bit of salt for later in the curing process. After a few days, the meat will be repacked with salt to drain the excess moisture that has come out. The next ingredient to be added is unrefined brown sugar. Just like salt, sugar will draw out moisture, but it will also add a light sweetness to the meat and get rid of the sharpness of the salt. Just like salt, a bit of sugar is saved for later. The cure continues with pink and black peppercorns, bay leaves, and juniper berries. The berries will bring lightness and sweetness with the sugar to the edge of the bacon.Carl: And lots of color, which is good. It'd be nice to have a big pestle and mortar.Claudia: Yeah. So you're just gonna crush them like this?Carl: Yes, gently. Just to get some of the powder out of the peppercorns.Claudia: Oh.Carl: And the juniper berries are still, they're still slightly wet, 'cause they're a berry. As we break them, there's just a little moisture still. It's a little bit like making your gin and having the botanicals. [Claudia laughs] It is like that, you can pick savory and strong flavors in your botanicals. I've seen people do rosemary bacon and things like that.Claudia: Oh! Mm.Carl: Just trying to infuse different flavors in.Claudia: Yeah, you can just personalize it, just a little bit. Carl: I think so. I mean, yeah, I wouldn't want to see people experiment too -Claudia: Too much.Carl: Well, it's up to them, I guess, if -but yeah, bay leaves act almost like it's that stability for the flavor. So you just give them a little bit of a crush, because they're fresh.Claudia: Wow. Yeah, they're a very nice green.Carl: They're not like the dry ones. You just give those a little rip. Nice having them grownClaudia: Ooh, nice smell.Carl: in the garden by one of our ladies in the office. I asked her for some bay leaves, she brought me half of her tree. So this is very good. [Claudia laughs]Claudia: That looks fantastic already. After 14 days and after removing the bones, this is the end result of our curing process.Carl: So, you've got the back bacon. And this is where it went from the shoulder. That's where we came in from the leg. So, we generally take the back bacon off with a little tail. So a small amount of the streaky remains on the back bacon.Claudia: Yeah.Carl: Just because that's the shape we normally use. Plus it gives that little bit of fat to cook with.Claudia: Yeah, for sure.Carl: So you just separate that. Down like that. And that will give you your streaky in your back bacon.Claudia: Ooh. Butchers refer to dry-cured, unsmoked bacon like this here as green bacon or green bac. This is nothing scary, and it's completely natural. It's just the salt slightly overcuring the edges of the bacon. A little trim, and our Gloucestershire Old Spots bacon is ready to be revealed.Carl: If we then look at the center of the bacon, that's when you've got that -Claudia: Oh, nice.Carl: Beautiful cure. Nice flavor going through.Claudia: There's a bit of marbling as well.Carl: Yes. Well, you've got the really nice native breeds. And the finish is really good on Judy's pigs. It just starts to build up just a little bit of fat in the muscle, which then for cooking makes it amazing.Claudia: Wow. Yeah.Carl: Just like it would a rib eye steak. The fat will always disintegrate first, because it reacts to heat and reduces. So it just breaks the meat into parts, so your bacon is then quite tender, which is quite a nice way to do things.Claudia: And so that's a speciality of Gloucestershire Old Spots.Carl: Yeah, yeah, definitely.Claudia: 'Cause you can find that. Carl: Yeah. Well, you get your pork chops and there's not just fat on the outside, you've got actually a nice bit of taste and the flavor going through it, which is really good. Claudia: Wow. OK.Carl: So, yeah. So that's our traditionally dry-cured nitrate-free bacon.Claudia: So, my first question is, why did you put this in the oven rather than frying it?Judy: Well, because it's got so much of its own lovely fat, and we love fat around here. We love <keyword id="6181" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Food">food</keyword> around here, but we love fat as well.Claudia: Especially.Judy: Especially. You don't need to fry it in oil or butter, and you wouldn't even need to turn it over, which is why really suits cooking in the oven. [rooster crows] Especially me as a farmer, you know, the animals can get up to whatever, and, you know, I bang it in the oven, and I've got 20, 30 minutes to go and sort out any crisis that might be on the farm. And there you go, it's ready without having to do anything.Claudia: OK. And this is the most, like, traditional way around here too?Judy: It is the most traditional way. The tradition is that you cook your bacon, you fry your eggs in the fat, and then you do your fried bread in the fat from the bacon. All right, so the bacon is the base for everything. Is the base for everything, exactly. And that is your traditional breakfast.Claudia: All right, let's have a taste then.Judy: Oh, let's have a go, shall we? How lovely.Claudia: Just like that. So, why is it that back bacon is more popular in here?Judy: I think really, probably because you've got more meat-to-fat ratio. Yeah? You know, you've got all that lovely eye muscle, it's called, there. The eye muscle you can relate to a pork chop on maybe loin, and then the nice bit of crispy fat, but the -Claudia: That's great.Judy: If you don't love fat quite as much as I do, then maybe you have got a bit more meat there.Claudia: Yeah, but I like the taste of the meat as well.Judy: Exactly. Exactly.Claudia: Yeah. And this is a great compromise between the two. I love it, yeah.Judy: Yeah. I mean, it tastes of pork, doesn't it? It shouts pork.Claudia: Yeah.Judy: You know what you're eating. And you'll notice also that we're eating the rind. It's edible. And that's just because it's what's called supple first, and it's really just cured in a traditional way. And you can eat all of it.Claudia: Yeah.Judy: Right? It's not chewy.Claudia: No, no, not at all. I just, I really like the fact that you can taste the fat, but there's also a bit of that, as Carl was saying, a little bit of that juniper berries.Judy: Oh, definitely. Yeah.Claudia: So they add something to the taste. Yeah.Judy: The one flavor complements the other. You're not getting a dominant flavor there at all, are you?Claudia: That's lovely. Yeah.Judy: Lovely, yeah. It's really good, isn't it? Really good. Yum. Josephine! It's over here, darling. And this here is Dolly Pig. Princess Joan.Claudia: Oh, she's a princess.Judy: That's her title. Good boy, Joe. Come on. Come on, piggy wigs! He is such a poser. Oh, that's it. Ecstasy. [Claudia laughing] This is a pig in ecstasy. Isn't it so sweet? Just love 'em.

Here's how traditional English bacon is made

<keyword id="46472" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="drought">Drought</keyword> fears linger as <keyword id="51549" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="El-Nino">El Nino</keyword> is reasserting itself, unhindered by rain-boosting weather system that were active in June that helped increase planting of crops significantly and filled more water in reservoirs. 
 US forecaster <keyword id="272882" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Accuweather">Accuweather</keyword> has said that northwestern India, which includes grain-bowl states of Punjab and Haryana, and Pakistan are heading for a drought as El Nino strengthens. 

	"The size of the drought area will be smaller, compared to earlier analysis. Heavy rain in some areas during June will lessen the impact of lower rainfall amounts moving forward," Accuweather told ET. It said July and August would be dry, although parts of Madhya Pradesh and Odisha may get heavier showers than what was earlier expected. The weather office on Friday said rainfall in the past day was 58 per cent below normal, continuing the weak phase that began after June 25, when seasonal rainfall was 28 per cent above normal. 

	Thanks to the heavy rainfall in June, area under kharif crops is 58 per cent higher than last year, according to official data. Planting of oilseeds and pulses has risen sharply, which should help calm soaring prices of lentils and reduce the demand for imported cooking oil if the trend continues.
 

	Heavy showers and rising prices have prompted farmers to increase planting of oilseed by 403 per cent, pulses by 133 per cent, cotton by 70 per cent and coarse cereals by 51 per cent compared to last year, according to latest data from the agriculture ministry. 

	 
	 
	(image credits: writingwhenblue)

Strengthening El Nino brings fresh drought fears in the country

And eventually, giving a respite from the mercury mayhem, the country has bathed with a bliss from heaven, the much awaited monsoon shower. In last 3 days, total rainfall has marked an 11% rise than normal. 
 
This increase in rainfall will boost planting of crops that had lagged behind so far, and replenish water reservoirs that irrigate fields and feed hydropower plants, according to a news report in The Economic Times. 
 However, it would be premature to celebrate as the weather office expects a shortfall of 12% in the monsoon's often-erratic, four-month <keyword id="6374782" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="journey">journey</keyword> from Kanyakumari to Kashmir that delivers 75% of India's annual rain. 
 Rainfall was 76% more than normal in the past 24 hours, accelerating from an excess of 46% on Saturday and 22% on Friday. The turnaround has been dramatic in the oil seed growing regions of central India, where rainfall since June 1 was 31% in deficit on June 10, but is now 12% higher than normal. The region received three times the normal rain in the past day. The monsoon has now covered entire Maharashtra, and extends up to Surat, <keyword id="45327" type="CITY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Raipur">Raipur</keyword> and Darjeeling. 
 
The good news is that it is poised to extend to more areas in a few days, the India Meteorological Department said in its latest forecast on Sunday. 
 "Conditions are favourable for further advance of southwest monsoon into some more parts of north Arabian Sea, Gujarat state, <keyword id="6355554" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Madhya-Pradesh">Madhya Pradesh</keyword>, Chhattisgarh and Odisha; remaining parts of coastal Andhra Pradesh, northwest Bay of Bengal and some parts of <keyword id="6360371" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Jharkhand">Jharkhand</keyword> and <keyword id="30033" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Bihar">Bihar</keyword> during next three days," it said. 
 The weather office expects the rainfall to continue in the days ahead. Rainfall is expected in many cities including Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Bhubaneswar, Visakhapatnam, Indore, <keyword id="6355556" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="bhopal">Bhopal</keyword>, <keyword id="6354925" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="Kolkata">Kolkata</keyword>, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Surat, Lucknow, Kanpur, Guwahati, Tezpur and Shillong. The revival of rainfall will boost crop planting, which was 9% below last year's level on Friday. Officials told the ET that this was likely to change soon. 
 
"When rainfall comes after a dry phase, farmers quickly plant crops and make up for the lost time. The recent increase in rainfall is very favourable," an agriculture ministry official told the financial daily. So far farmers have planted rice on a bigger area than last year, but pulses, coarse cereals and cotton sowing has declined, compared to last year. 
 
(Image: Reuters)

Monsoon turns He-Man, with an increase of 11% above normal in just 3 days!

Untimely shower in April is definitely taking a toll on the fresh sows in the northern parts of India. The ravi harvest in North and West India including onions in Maharashtra have been badly affected due to unseasonal rain and storm. However, a recent survey by a <keyword id="2808232" type="POSITION" weightage="80" keywordseo="private-weather-forecaster">private weather forecaster</keyword> comes as a breather for the farmers. The <keyword id="6376779" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Skymet">Skymet</keyword> conducted survey points out that that the country will receive normal rains during the June-September monsoon season. 
 
As per a news report by The Economic Times, the government's India Meteorological department (IMD) is expected to forecast on the same by April 23. Local authorities use IMD's prediction to decide on their monsoon preparations. However, global forecasters are of opinion that 2015 in Indian agriculture might be largely impacted bby El Nino. El Nino has a history of adversely impacting monsoon rain. In the past decade, 2002, 2004 and 2009 were drought years due to the phenomenon 
"2014-15 has become an El Nino year as the Oceanic Nino index has crossed the threshold value of 0.5 for five consecutive times since September 2014 till March end. We expect it to last till May 2015 and thereafter go down, thereby not making any impact on Indian monsoon," GP Sharma, vice-president of meteorology at Skymet told the ET. 
 
Skymet expects a few dry patches in parts of northwest, central and south India but on the whole it is optimistic of normal rains in 2015. In its March forecast it has said that the monsoon rainfall might be 102 per cent of long-period average for the period June to September. 
As per the news report in the financial daily, average rainfall over India for June-September would be 89 cm. The long-term average is the average rainfall for the past 50 years. A deviation of up to 4 per cent on both sides is considered as normal. Anything beyond 10 per cent is excess rainfall, or drought. 
 
DS Pai, head of the long range forecast at IMD told the ET, that they were analysing the latest forecast and by April 22-23 come with their first forecast for the Indian monsoon. "We are monitoring data and will not like to comment on El Nino impact at this stage," he said. More than half of the population in India being directly or indirectly dependent on farms, rain is indispensible element of survival. The ET predicts deficient rains could drive up inflation, especially <keyword id="67286" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Food-inflation">food inflation</keyword>, affecting the steps to put the <keyword id="34412" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="economy">economy</keyword> back on track. In 2009, the country's worst drought in nearly four decades drove up food inflation to as much as 20 per cent and it took years for it come to bearable levels. 
Land preparation and sowing of kharif crops, largely paddy, soyabean, cotton, pulses such as pigeon peas (arhar) and green gram (moong), coarse cereals like bajra and jowar, pick up with the onset of the monsoon in the country. 
 
 
(Image: Reuters)

You Searched For "coarse cereals" and got 5 results

Bankers, analysts hail liquidity boosting policy measures

PTI

Here's how traditional English bacon is made

Claudia Romeo

Strengthening El Nino brings fresh drought fears in the country

BI India Bureau

Monsoon turns He-Man, with an increase of 11% above normal in just 3 days!

BI India Bureau

The monsoon's going to be just fine this year

BI India Bureau

You Searched For "coarse cereals" and got 5 results

Bankers, analysts hail liquidity boosting policy measures

PTI

Here's how traditional English bacon is made

Claudia Romeo

Strengthening El Nino brings fresh drought fears in the country

BI India Bureau

Monsoon turns He-Man, with an increase of 11% above normal in just 3 days!

BI India Bureau

​The monsoon's going to be just fine this year

BI India Bureau

The monsoon's going to be just fine this year