-The Hindu Fine particulate matter from industries, cars and biomass causing premature mortality. Air pollution could have killed at least 600,000 Indians in 2012, a study conducted by the World Health Organisation and made public on Monday said. That is about a fifth of the 3 million who died worldwide because they were exposed to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) that may have aggravated or been directly responsible for cardiovascular diseases and lung cancer. India...

-Livemint.com Radha Mohan Singh says the monsoon this year has been well distributed with 5.3 million hectare more area planted that could see a record production of foodgrains New Delhi: After two years of drought and declining crop production, a record foodgrain production on the back of a well distributed monsoon is expected in 2016-17, agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh said on Thursday. While pulses production could touch 22 million tonnes, up...

-Business Standard The efficacy of farm debt waivers is ambiguous, but it has proved to be a potent potent weapon in the run-up to elections With elections round the corner in agrarian states of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, his party’s Punjab chief ministerial candidate Amarinder Singh and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal are trying to woo farmers of the two states with promises of farm...

A fall in the rate of inflation (on point to point basis) in Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) from 8.35 percent in July to 5.91 percent in August this year is indicative of the positive developments that has taken place during recent months in the agricultural sector, which is expected to further cool off food prices in the near future. A document from the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare...

-The Indian Express At simultaneous zeniths of their cycles this monsoon, chikungunya appears mild but causes a scare by spreading beyond the south. This year’s robust monsoon has come at a price: a zenith in the dengue and chikungunya cycles. Spiralling cases of both diseases have sent alarm bells ringing and the “season” has only just begun. Chikungunya, which has never really been a big worry in the north, has struck Delhi strongly...