-The Indian Express Mainstay of the state’s economy, three-fourths of India’s total production, Kashmir apples have survived spot-less through the Valley’s 30-year insurgency. Is this about to change, as the Centre takes over procurement in its bid to restore ‘normalcy’, militants strike back with threats, and growers watch their fruit rot? An Indian Express report An olive-green mine-proof Caspir vehicle of the Army stands in front of a long, tin-roofed platform...

-Down to Earth Nasa’s satellite image showed at least 100 such incidents in Punjab in the last 72 hours Nasa satellite images recorded scores of farm fires across Punjab and Haryana in the last seven days, indicating that the stubble burning season has started in the two states. Several red dots, indicating stubble burning activity, were seen in the images, especially over the districts of Amritsar, Ludhiana and Patiala in Punjab, and Karnal,...

-The Indian Express Torture is an endemic characteristic of Indian policing. A commitment to eradicating it requires the police force as a whole to have zero tolerance for the practice besides a specific anti-torture law The home minister’s recent pronouncement that the days of third-degree torture are gone is extraordinarily welcome. His announcement is as much a signal to the security forces to lay off this practice as it is an acknowledgment...

-Newsclick.in More than ‘short supply’, profiteering by traders is behind the ongoing high prices. But why is the government beating around the bush instead of acting fast? Within weeks – in fact days – onion prices have gone through the roof across the country, reminding everybody of the periodic spikes in the past that caused governments to fall. In Delhi, for instance, the price of onions at the local sabziwala is ranging...

-TheWire.in The move itself reveals a deep-seated pro-consumer and anti-producer bias that has been, in large part, the reason for the agriculture economy being in doldrums. New Delhi: The government has decided to import onions from ‘Pakistan, Egypt, China, Afghanistan or any other origin’, according to a Metals and Minerals Trading Corporation Limited notifications. Some concerns were raised about importing from Pakistan. “And why import from Pakistan? Is the Indian farmer a...