-PTI About 20 per cent increase in wage inflation is building up price pressure on food articles and is posing a big challenge for RBI to cut policy rates, an industry body said today. "Near 20 per cent annual increase in the wage inflation in rural areas is building up price pressures on food articles like cereals, rice and wheat, and is posing a big challenge for the Reserve Bank which is...

-Live Mint India’s water security outlook has been labelled ‘hazardous’ in report published by Asian Development Bank India’s water security outlook for 2013 has been labelled “hazardous” in a report published by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) titled Asian Water Development Outlook 2013.   A hazardous outlook implies inadequate levels of public investment, regulations and enforcement related to water. India was given the lowest water security index rating of 1 (on a scale of...

-PTI Pawar says sugarcane planting has not yet begun in Maharashtra due to the second consecutive year of poor rains Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar on Wednesday said sugar output is likely to decline for the second straight year to 24 million tonnes (MT) in the year starting October 2013 due to an expected lower sugarcane crop in Maharashtra.   In 2011-12 (September-October), the country had produced 26 MT of sugar. However, the output for...

-The Business Standard Budget underestimates food, fertiliser subsidies If the projections in the 2013-14 Budget are to be believed, subsidies on food and fertiliser which, along with petroleum subsidy, account for nearly 95 per cent of total subsidies are unlikely to rise much in the next financial year. This prognosis, reflected in an increase of just Rs 5,000 crore in food subsidy allocation and no change in the fertiliser subsidy, is odd;...

-The Hindu By allowing futures trade in food and diversion of farm land for commercial purposes, the UPA government is fuelling the price rise International agencies are warning of high food prices on a global scale in 2013 if urgent action is not taken. But our government shows little concern. The President’s address to Parliament had only a cursory mention of inflation. “Inflation is easing gradually, but is still a problem,” he...