-The Times of India The government on Thursday approved a steep hike on diesel price in a politically risky move to rein in the fiscal deficit. The cabinet committee on political affairs approved the hike in a meeting at the Prime Minister's residence. The price of diesel is hiked by Rs 5. However, the price of PDS kerosene and petrol were left unchanged. The panel also restricted the number of subsidized LPG...

-NDTV The Congress is not in favour of a petrol price hike anytime soon, sources have told NDTV. The party's core group met this evening and discussed the issue, sources said. Oil Minister Jaipal Reddy, who is not a part of the core group, was also present at the meeting. Just a few hours, before the meet, Mr Reddy had said the "painful duty" of a hike in fuel prices cannot be...

-IPS News World Water Week recently concluded in Stockholm with a special emphasis on the linkages between water and food security. From the worst drought in 56 years in the United States Midwest, to the Karnataka’s drought in India, to the protracted drought in the Sahel region of West Africa, we have also seen how in our globalised world the nexus between lack of water and food security in one corner of...

-The Economic Times While India frets about coal block allocations, massive policy failures have hit people where it hurts most: the stomach. While granaries are overflowing and sugar piling up, one would have expected the prices of sugar and flour to fall, or remain stable. Instead, since mid-July, wheat prices are up 20% across the country and flour prices have also shot up. For sugar, whose prices are up 12% from mid-July,...

-The Hindu The World Bank has joined the chorus warning the world of an impending food crisis with damaging food price inflation. In its late-August edition of its Food Price Watch the Bank reported that Global Prices for food as reflected by its Food Price Index rose 10 per cent in July 2012 alone. The prices of staples such as corn and soya bean were at an all-time high that month,...