About 85,000 people in three south-western districts of Odisha have been affected by flash floods as rivers submerged vast areas following heavy rains, state Revenue and Disaster Management minister S N Patro said here today. In 151 villages of the affected blocks, relief camps have been set up and food served to the affected people through community kitchen, Patro told reporters after a visit to the flood-hit districts of Nabarangpur,...

Russia has announced a temporary ban on wheat exports. This is of course not entirely unanticipated. Today, soon after the Russian Prime Minister reportedly announced a temporary grain export ban, prices were seen rising further. Drought conditions have threatened Russian wheat harvest. From record 63.7 million tonnes in 2008-09, wheat production declined by two million tonnes the following year. Drought is now threatening to pull output down to around 50 mt. Russia's wheat exports...

Huge rain deficit for some pockets in the region The southern region has received 11 per cent more rain Tiruchi has the highest rainfall deficiency of 85 per cent Even though the on-going south-west monsoon has been the most benevolent so far over the southern peninsula, there are some pockets in the region, which are still facing huge deficiencies. The region, which consists of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka, apart from Lakshadweep...

Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti, which is spearheading a campaign against the defunct Land Development Bank's forcible recovery drive from farmers in distressed western Vidarbha, has disputed the government claim that only big and habitually defaulting farmers are being targeted. Buttressing their charge that LDB was charging usurious rates, VJAS has highlighted the case of Purshottam Ingle of village Tigoan in Wardha, who borrowed Rs 2,90,000 in 2001 from LDB by...

It's not China's special economic zones that chief minister Narendra Modi wants to replicate in Gujarat. The state government has taken a leaf out of the Chinese cultural revolution of late 1960s, when Mao Zedong formally attacked "western trained" medical system and floated the concept of ‘barefoot doctors'. The health ministry has decided to compensate for sharp shortage of allopathic doctors in the state by making large-scale appointment of barefoot...