-TheWire.in According to a research note by SBI, for every one dollar of increase in the pooled gas rate, India’s fertiliser subsidy bill shoots up by Rs 4,000-5,000 crore. There is no such thing as a localised conflict in a globalised world. Sooner rather than later, fallouts from the Russia-Ukraine war will overwhelm the operations of developed and developing economies alike, leading up to the largest, and possibly, the worst food crisis...

-TheWire.in * The Parliamentary standing committee on chemicals and fertilisers has produced a report highlighting gaps in the availability of COVID-19 drugs and devices during the pandemic. * The committee has asked the national government why PSUs didn’t receive licenses to make COVID drugs when private manufacturers did. * The MPs on the committee also spotlighted widespread irrational drug use in COVID-19 management, despite the existence of a standard treatment protocol. New Delhi: The...

-Newsclick.in The roots of the present crisis lie in wrong policies adopted over the last two decades that have undermined domestic production of fertilisers led by the public sector and increased dependence on imports and production by the private sector. Indian farmers have been facing a major crisis because of shortages in availability and an unprecedented rise in prices of fertilisers. Fertilisers are a critical input for agriculture, and a shortage in...

-Newsclick.in Farmers of the state’s rice bowl have said that the expenses and efficiency of organic farming are not viable for large-scale paddy production. Thiruvananthapuram: The price hike and shortage of chemical fertilisers and reduction in subsidies have galvanised the farmers of Kerala. The Kerala Karshaka Sangham (KSS), the state unit of the All India Kisan Sabha, organised protests at 210 centres across the state on Monday demanding the Narendra Modi government’s...

-Down to Earth Urea subsidy cut 17%; allocation for NPK subsidy reduced 35%  Amid acute shortage of fertilisers in India, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman February 1, 2022, reduced subsidy on urea and nutrient-based (NPK) fertilisers. The move is expected to adversely hit the ailing farm sector. The Rs 63,222.32 crore allocation for urea subsidy in her Budget for 2022-23 was 17 per cent lower than the revised estimates (RE) for 2021-22. Another...