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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

CPFR seeks PM’s intervention

To lift anti-farmer curbs on MSP cotton procurement rules Mumbai : The Council for Protection of Farmers Rights-Kisan Bharti has demanded Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention to direct the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) to rollback its restrictive cotton procurement rules hitting farmers in the state.   In an appeal to the PM, CPFR-Kisan Bharti President Barr. Vinod Tiwari said that the CCI’s recent move – to cap cotton procurement at only 7 quintals/acre, almost half of the earlier...

CPFR seeks PM’s intervention

To lift anti-farmer curbs on MSP cotton procurement rules Mumbai : The Council for Protection of Farmers Rights-Kisan Bharti has demanded Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention to direct the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) to rollback its restrictive cotton procurement rules hitting farmers in the state.   In an appeal to the PM, CPFR-Kisan Bharti President Barr. Vinod Tiwari said that the CCI’s recent move – to cap cotton procurement at only 7 quintals/acre, almost half of the earlier limit of 13 quintals/acre – has heightened the agony among lakhs of cotton farmers in Maharashtra and adjoining Telangana.   “This bizarre slash in the limit, imposed after yield surveys conducted this Kharif season, has driven farmers to sell nearly 80 percent of the produce to private traders at very low prices. This has added to the already severe distress among farmlands,” Tiwari told  ‘ The Perfect Voice’ .   In view of the cutbacks, farmers have no options but to dispose of their cotton stocks at around Rs 6500/quintal or lower, almost 25 pc below the MSP of Rs 8110/quintal.   The worst-affected are those tillers who produce more than 5 quintas/acre who cannot sell their full yield to CCI owing to the restrictions, and hence offload it to any private buyers at extremely low rates and much below the MSP.   “Worsening the crisis is the CCI’s rigid moisture-content requirements of 8-12 pc which is difficult to maintain. In view of the fog, intermittent rains, drop in winter temperatures, natural moisture levels in the cotton remains high. Despite drying it in the open for days, farmers report moisture levels at 20 pc or higher, and their stocks are rejected outright at CCI procurement centres,” explained Tiwari.   Citing examples, the CPFR-Kisan Bharti said in Yavatmal district alone, 236,752 farmers opted for cotton cultivation across 825,932 acres, yielding around 3.3 million quintals.   However, of this huge quantity, the CCI has procured barley 7,921 quintals and the private traders lapped up some 115,000 quintals at low rates – exposing the gaps between government promises vis-à-vis ground realities.   Farmers rued that the CCI’s impossible regulations are directly pushing them into the trap of private traders, who bargain hard to get the cotton stocks at cheap rates.   The CPFR-Kisan Bharti said that of the 27 procurement centres announced by CCI, barely a handful are operating, leading to long queues, increased transportation costs and logistical chaos for the already harassed farmers.   “Our demand is to increase the procurement to at least 12 quintals/acre, relax the moisture content limits to 22 pc owing to the natural hazards and open more procurement centres to quicken the process,” said Tiwari.   Since the CCI is the nodal agency for MSP procurement, it is expected to protect the farmers’ interest rather than penalizing them for things beyond their control, hence the PM must immediately direct the CCI to do the needful help the farmers before they resort to extreme measures, he urged.

Musk’s Quiet Power Broker

Vaibhav Taneja, Tesla’s CFO, is now bankrolling Elon Musk’s political rebellion.


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Elon Musk’s long-simmering feud with Donald Trump has finally exploded into open political warfare. On July 4, the occasion of America’s Independence Day, the billionaire entrepreneur declared the launch of his ‘America Party’ in a direct challenge to what he called the “one-party system” in Washington, while accusing Trump of bankrupting the country with a reckless tax-and-spend bill. The ever-combative Trump responded by calling Musk’s move of founding a new party “ridiculous” while hinting darkly at the entrepreneur’s business entanglements with the federal government.


Amid the sound and fury, a quieter appointment signalled Musk’s seriousness about this latest venture. According to filings with the Federal Election Commission (FEC), the treasurer and custodian of records for the new party will be Vaibhav Taneja, the Indian-born Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Tesla.


It is a telling choice. While Musk’s rebellion may be loud and erratic, he has handed the purse strings to a man defined by discipline, discretion and an uncanny ability to thrive in Musk’s volatile world.


The filings list the party’s official address as 1, Rocker Road in Hawthorne, California—Tesla’s own backyard. But The America Party is no mere extension of the company. It is the latest front in Musk’s expanding campaign to reshape American institutions in his own image, from space exploration to electric vehicles to now, electoral politics. And Taneja, 47, has become a central figure in that strategy.


Born and raised in India, Taneja earned a commerce degree from Delhi University and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2000. By 2006, he had also picked up a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) credential in the United States. He spent 17 years at PricewaterhouseCoopers, guiding Fortune 500 clients through financial reporting, IPOs, and audit scrutiny – training that has served him well in the gladiatorial arena of Silicon Valley.


Taneja entered Musk’s orbit in 2016 when he joined SolarCity, a solar-energy firm run by Musk’s cousins. When Tesla acquired the company later that year, Taneja was absorbed into its vast and ever-expanding apparatus. Within a year, he became Tesla’s Corporate Controller. By 2019, he was Chief Accounting Officer. In August 2023, Taneja took the top financial job after the sudden exit of long-serving CFO Zach Kirkhorn.


Though he rarely gives interviews and maintains a vanishingly small public profile, Taneja has built a reputation inside Muskworld for calm competence and unflinching loyalty.


His responsibilities are formidable. Tesla spans continents and industries, be it electric vehicles, solar panels, energy storage or AI-driven robotics. It is one of the most scrutinised firms in the world, especially given the profile of its mercurial CEO. Taneja is one of the few executives trusted to run with high-stakes assignments: in 2021, he was appointed a director of Tesla’s Indian subsidiary, and has been closely involved in its long-delayed foray into the country’s tightly regulated car market.


In 2024, he earned an eye-watering $139 million, including stock awards - more than any other tech CFO and more than Google’s Sundar Pichai or Microsoft’s Satya Nadella. Such largesse marks him as one of Musk’s closest lieutenants.


His new role in The America Party will be neither symbolic nor ceremonial. As treasurer, Taneja is responsible for collecting and disbursing donations, filing disclosures and ensuring compliance with the tangle of laws that govern political finance in America. For a party built around Musk’s personality, the financials must be watertight, especially as critics sharpen their knives.


And critics abound. The U.S. Treasury Secretary has already suggested Musk should stick to his day job. An investment firm, Azoria Partners, has postponed a Tesla-linked fund, citing potential conflicts of interest. Trump has publicly questioned the legality of the venture. So far, Tesla’s board has maintained a studied silence.


But Musk’s political ambitions are real. With the 2026 midterm elections looming, The America Party is more than a stunt. It has been touted as a platform to reshape the conversation around free speech, government intervention and the role of billionaires in public life. In this context, Vaibhav Taneja becomes a foundational architect, tasked with ensuring the movement’s legality, solvency and operational credibility.


While Musk rages against Trump on X (formerly Twitter), Taneja will remain in the shadows, calculating, filing and keeping the gears of the ‘revolution’ turning. It is an irony that should amuse most observers as the man behind the spreadsheets may just prove more important than the man behind the slogans.

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