-The Economic Times India's rice exports are likely to jump as much as 15% this year after the government scrapped the minimum export price (MEP) of $700 per tonne. "India's annual basmati exports will surpass last year's figure in the current fiscal," said Sumeet Saluja, managing director, Whitefields Overseas, which markets basmati under the brand name India Crown. Total rice shipments, including basmati and non-basmati, were 7.3 million tonne in 2011-12. Of this,...

-Tehelka Are we eating sugar which small kids are producing as bonded labour? FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD Mahendra Singh used to live with his parents and two siblings in the Jahangirpuri slum area of New Delhi until the morning he was abducted, trafficked and then callously ‘sold’ to a sugarcane farmer of Haryana’s Karnal district. Mahendra was made to work as a bonded labourer in the sugarcane fields for three-and-a-half long years, until he finally...

-PTI Drought-hit states like Karnataka, Gujarat and Maharashtra are facing acute shortage of fodder and have petitioned the Centre to urgently address the issue as it could affect dairy industry. The chief ministers of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat -- the worst drought-affected states -- have also asked the Centre to bear at least 75 per cent cost of the agriculture loan they are waiving in the states to rescue farmers from severe...

-The Hindu Literacy has helped people in the State maximise the benefits of the rural employment guarantee scheme Kerala’s achievements have long been celebrated by development economists — high literacy rates, including among girls, low infant mortality rates and so on. There has also been a spate of writings highlighting the ills of Kerala society. Critics have pointed to the high rates of suicides and feminists have also raised difficult questions. While...

-Business Today "I want it back," says Sharada Begum. The 67-year-old woman is a member of one of the 100 households of Raghubir Nagar, a resettlement colony in west Delhi, chosen to participate in a pilot scheme that aimed to turn the public distribution system (PDS) on its head. Through all of 2011, these households had Rs 1,000 transferred every month to a woman member's bank account in lieu of rice, wheat,...