Take a look at the accompanying map and you can’t but notice the extent of overlap between India’s thickly forested areas, the regions with the bulk of the country’s most Important mineral wealth and the territory over which Maoists are dominant. Is this just a coincidence? No, that would stretch credulity. So what connects the Maoist menace with forests and mining? Clearly, forests give a guerilla force its best chance...

THE Centre could make changes to the new Nutrient-based Subsidy (NBS) for fertilisers, as part of a concerted move to prune its subsidy bill after global prices of fertiliser nosedived recently. Under the NBS, subsidies for nutrients are currently fixed for a whole year but could now be reviewed every six months to take into account changes, especially price drops, in Import prices. The Union Cabinet, while approving the NBS...

India's anxiety over erratic monsoon rains will become more acute as rising incomes and a growing population push up demand for farmed produce faster than supply, turning the nation into a major Importer within 5 years. Forecasts of a normal monsoon this year have stirred hopes for smooth supplies and low inflation, reversing setbacks from last year's poor rains. But the country must boost yields if it is to feed...

World cereal output is expected to rise this year to near-record highs, swelling overall supplies and putting pressure on already weakened prices, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said on Thursday. The global wheat output is expected to fall for the third consecutive year, but at 676.5 million tonnes, it would still be close to record levels, the UN’s food agency said, revising its earlier forecast for 2010. Overall cereal output is...

Judging by the television news that night, May 20, 2010, was a day like any other — marked by natural disaster (a cyclone predicted for Orissa), violent rebellion (the blowing up of railway tracks by Maoists in Bihar), political partisanship (the insistence by Mamata Banerjee that the Union railways minister would be of her party even if she soon moved, as she hoped, to become chief minister of West Bengal),...