-Rediff.com India has the emerged as the world's largest rice exporter in 2012 beating its Asian counterpart Thailand with shipment of 9.75 million tonnes, according to United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) latest report. Thailand was the top rice exporter with exports of 10.65 million tonnes in 2011. However, its volume slipped to 6.5 million tonnes in 2012. "On the export side, India's [ Images ] exports were raised 1.75 million tonnes to...

-The Telegraph Hyderabad: Forty-three institutions in Andhra Pradesh figure on technical education regulator AICTE’s “unapproved list”, in a further blow to the state where engineering education touched its nadir this year. The list includes the Indian School of Business (ISB), founded by former McKinsey chief Rajat Gupta, who has been convicted of insider trading. The ISB has, however, never sought approval from the regulator, so it wouldn’t be affected by the All India...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI/ NAGPUR: Grave questions have surfaced over the source of funds for Purti Power and Sugar Ltd, controlled by BJP president Nitin Gadkari. Investigations reveal significant investments and large loans to Purti by a construction firm, Ideal Road Builders (IRB) Group, which had won contracts between 1995 and 1999, when Gadkari was the PWD minister in Maharashtra. Besides IRB Group, the other significant shareholders in Purti are...

Rising corn prices in the United States brought about by biofuel mandates have cost developing countries 6.6 billion dollars over the past six years, says a study by Global Development And Environment Institute at Tufts University (GDAE).  Net Food Importing Developing Countries, among the most vulnerable to food price increases, incurred ethanol-related costs of $2.1 billion, the study concludes. (See highlights and the links below). The recent spike in world food prices...

-The Economist A new form of radical centrist politics is needed to tackle inequality without hurting economic growth BY THE end of the 19th century, the first age of globalisation and a spate of new inventions had transformed the world economy. But the “Gilded Age” was also a famously unequal one, with America’s robber barons and Europe’s “Downton Abbey” classes amassing huge wealth: the concept of “conspicuous consumption” dates back to 1899....