-PTI Poor monsoon continues to put pressure on prices of staple vegetables, including tomato and potato, and could further push up retail inflation which is hovering above the double-digit mark. Rates of key veggies are yet to show signs of coming down compared to mid-July due to supply constraint as a result of deficient rainfall across the country. According to IMD, the country has witnessed 19 per cent rain deficiency during the season...

-The Economic Times PUNE: In a country where about a third of farmland is drought-prone, farmers have started adopting technologies that help mitigate the impact of water scarcity and maximise output with minimum inputs. Micro irrigation is the known technology to save water which has been used successfully by countries like Israel. Despite government subsidy, micro irrigation is not affordable to a large number of farmers. This has led to a widespread...

-The Business Standard Consumers say they cannot buy branded FMCG items in mobile phones, customers opt for low-end handsets while retaining brand loyalty Last year, Ashok Das, a farmer-cum-fisherman from the small industrial town of Rishra in the Hooghly district of West Bengal, had promised his younger son a branded television. But last year’s bad crop output and this season’s deficient monsoon made him change his plans and finally settle on a...

-DNA It would be sad if the ghastly violence at Maruti Suzuki’s (MSIL) Manesar plant on July 18, 2012, in which a HR manager died, were to be understood simply as a ‘murderous workers’ vs ‘rational management’ kind of an incident. There is a history and a context to this violence, and how that is understood, and acknowledged, by India Inc. will indicate how serious we are about preventing such incidents...

-The Indian Express The government on Friday said the spectre of drought over a few states and the likelihood of a lower rainfall pattern this year should not be a concern for a “panicky situation” as it is geared up to face the situation with enough stocks of foodgrains and sugar. Last year the production of both foodgrains and sugar had overshot the estimate leaving the government with adequate resources for the...