The Uttar Pradesh government is expected to soon announce the price at which mills in the state will have to buy sugarcane from farmers. Having received a record Rs 260 per quintal for sugarcane last season, farmers are insisting on a similar payout this season. The figure will be keenly watched because high raw material costs can substantially reduce profitability of companies in a season of bumper sugar production and low...
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India's Bitter Choice: Water for Steel or Food? by Abhishek Shanker
Global steel giants ArcelorMittal (MT) and Posco are leading $80 billion in planned spending in India, an investment that would vault the country ahead of Japan as the second-biggest steelmaker. There's one hurdle: India's farmers and their water supply. The farmers refuse to move from irrigated land in three states that hold more than half of India's reserves of iron ore, a key material used in the making of steel....
More »Fewer hands to craft Durga idols in Kolkata, courtesy jobs scheme
The city's famous potters' colony of Kumartuli is facing an acute shortage of hands to sculpt Durga Puja idols. Behind this labour scarcity is an unlikely culprit - the rural jobs scheme which has induced hundreds to stay back in their villages. Costs of organising Durga Puja have gone up this year as more has to be shelled out on labour and raw material - in some cases jumping almost 50...
More »Brazil has revolutionised its own farms. Can it do the same for others? by Piaui Cremaq
IN A remote corner of Bahia state, in north-eastern Brazil, a vast new farm is springing out of the dry bush. Thirty years ago eucalyptus and pine were planted in this part of the cerrado (Brazil’s savannah). Native shrubs later reclaimed some of it. Now every field tells the story of a transformation. Some have been cut to a litter of tree stumps and scrub; on others, charcoal-makers have moved...
More »How to stop the rot by Samar Halarnkar
Today, the Supreme Court of India will hear arguments in what is emerging as a national disgrace: One of the world’s largest stockpiles of foodgrain going to rot and rodent because the government lacks the vision, ability and commitment to either store it properly or distribute it to the poor. Let me recap what I reported on the front-page of this paper last month: About a third of India’s grain reserves,...
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