-The Economic Times The power failure in India on July 30-31 was big news in US media. When the radio and TV stations began calling with the question whether this spelt the end to India's claims to global-power status, my first reaction was to remind them that a similar failure of the grid in 2003 had drowned the entire Northeast and Midwest in the US and Ontario in Canada into darkness. But,...
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August wetter than thought, rains lash northern and western parts of the country-Rituraj Tiwari
-The Times of India Though El Nino concerns still loom large over the coming month, August has been wetter than expected. Rains in the last 16 days have lashed the parched fields of most parts of the country, especially the northern and western parts which were reeling under acute rain deficiency. More rains have recharged depleted reservoirs. Water level in 84 main reservoirs is at 51% of the full reservoir level, equalling...
More »Waiting for rain-PK Joshi
-The Indian Express As drought pushes up food prices, India must invest in new irrigation methods The speculation on the delay of the monsoons and below-normal rainfall this year is not new to India. But the drought in the maize belt of the United States — that is, in the Midwest — was unexpected. The impact of the drought will be felt on wheat and soya bean production. This will eventually lead...
More »Switch from farm subsidy to farm investment-Ashok Gulati
-The Economic Times With a weak monsoon, farmers and farm labour, agri-investors and policy makers, everyone is looking up in the sky and praying for more water to pour. Farm analysts are debating whether this will lead to a drop of 16 million tonnes of foodgrain, as it happened in 2009, or 38 million tonnes, as it did in 2002. NCAER is projecting 20 million tonnes drop in grain production in...
More »The bottom line
-The Indian Express New NSS data affirms that GDP growth remains the best way to tackle poverty Amid the pervasive economic gloom, provisional data from the 68th round of the National Sample Survey Office’s just-concluded household consumer expenditure survey offers a sliver of good news. According to it, average inflation-adjusted expenditure for July 2011-June 2012 rose by about 4.5 per cent in two years, with the poorest 10 per cent of the...
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