-Livemint.com/ Bloomberg Foreign exchange reserves dropped by $5.14 billion in the seven days ended October 12, the biggest weekly decline since November 2011, as the RBI stepped up action to prop up the rupee Mumbai: India made the biggest dent in its foreign exchange reserves in seven years as the central bank stepped up action to prop up Asia’s worst-performing currency. Reserves dropped by $5.14 billion in the seven days ended October 12,...

-Deccan Herald For the first time in 18 years, the country has witnessed a record withdrawal of foreign investors from the Indian equity and debt markets. Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) and Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) have pulled out a record Rs 51,591 crore from the Indian markets in less than nine months of this year amid concerns over a slide in rupee value against the dollar. Earlier in 2008, the FIIs had...

-Livemint.com Roots of disagreement lie in how farm support is calculated under WTO, with US blaming India for under-reporting subsidy given for wheat and rice Bengaluru: Farm subsidies seem to have become a major flashpoint in the escalating global trade war. In May, India came under attack from the US for its minimum support price (MSP) policy for foodgrain. India hit back, along with China, to demand that developed nations give up...

-Down to Earth Can pre-poll sops like giving smart phones with internet connectivity to farmers increase farm income? Last week, thousands of farmers and agricultural workers poured into the National Capital to attract and focus the attention of the Central government to their demands. The Mazdoor Kisan Sangharsh Rally, organised by farmers’ organization, All India Kisan Sabha, and the All India Agriculture Workers Union, broke all records as far as crowd numbers...

-National Herald Talking about farmers’ issues, P Sainath said, “It is not just an agrarian crisis, it is now a national crisis. The Modi govt has been engaged in fooling the nation. They are telling lies shamelessly” The founder editor of People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI), the former Rural Affairs editor of The Hindu and author of the much acclaimed book ‘Everybody loves a Good Drought’, P Sainath, has recorded rural...