-The Hindu Extension of procurement season to benefit farmers, it says The Centre has asked wheat-producing States and union territories (UTs), whose procurement closing dates were expiring early, to keep procuring wheat till May 31, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution said in a statement on May 15. The extension of the wheat procurement season was “expected to benefit farmers”, the Ministry said. The Ministry had also directed the Food...

-Down to Earth The full impact of the wheat ban on farmers will be known only in the next few days, say experts India’s sudden decision to ban wheat exports with immediate effect citing food security may prove costly for its farmers. Many of them have held back their crop in the hopes of getting higher prices in the coming weeks. The impact of this decision is already being seen in wheat mandis...

-The Hindu Business Line Experts attribute it to higher cost of providing goods and services and more money under schemes Retail inflation based on Consumer Price Index (CPI) for rural areas is higher than urban areas for four successive months with West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Haryana recording double-digit rural retail inflation in April. These are among the 17 States that witnessed higher retail inflation in rural areas. However, in Karnataka, Kerala,...

-TheWire.in * According to the Union health ministry’s new Rural Health Statistics report, for 2020-2021, primary health centres have a surplus of doctors. * This could be true – although there are doubts about whether the report included the number of doctors on transitory, ad hoc appointments as well. * The report fails to capture the qualitative aspects of doctors’ availability at PHCs, including a hidden problem motivated by the absence of sufficient...

-NDTV.com "A constitutional bench has already examined all aspects of sedition law in context of fundamental rights," the Centre said in its statement.  New Delhi: The Centre today defended the sedition law and asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the pleas challenging it. The court is hearing a batch of pleas challenging the constitutional validity of the colonial-era law. In a written submission, the Centre told the three-judge bench, led by Chief Justice...