-The Business Standard   This year’s paddy procurement season has started with foodgrain stocks being more than double the buffer stock norms. An increase in grain stocks will put a strain on the already-scarce warehousing space, with consequences for safe storage and usability. Thus, excess holding of grains ought to be avoided. Maintaining a stockpile of nearly 55 million tonnes, with average economic cost of wheat and rice being Rs 18,000 per...

-The Hindu   The Goa government on Tuesday filed a reply before the Goa Bench of the Bombay High Court to a Public Interest Litigation petition on illegal mining, claiming that the extraction, which the petitioner questioned, was from dumps and excess mining did not take place. The affidavit was submitted on behalf of Director of Mines and Geology Arvind Loliekar in the course of the hearing on the Goa Foundation's petition, which...

There is a China hand in India's inflation, one important reason why the steady rise in interest rates may not be cooling the high inflation. About 25% of imported inputs that go into manufacture of goods produced locally are imported from China. In addition, a third of consumer goods imported into India come from China. The inflation in goods Exported by China was 10% in July, much higher than its overall...

A new draft Bill holds much promise to augment the development delivery mechanism. It is the new mining Bill, 2011, which has specific provisions for earmarking funds for development purposes in the mineral-rich districts that happen to be the regions with high poverty ratios. Revamped mining legislation can boost transparency in the vexed sector that seems much prone to illegality, corruption and extensive fraud.  Further, a well-crafted mining law can actually...

-PTI    Armed with a report prepared by former Karnataka Lokayukta on illegal mining, Union Ministry of Mines has asked the Goa government to furnish data on the allegations that the Mormugao Port Trust ( MPT) used to Export the iron ore even as the neighbouring state had banned the activity.  The officials in the State Mines and Geology Department told PTI that the Union ministry in a recent meeting in Delhi asked...