-The Economic Times That India has had an excellent Monsoon is a given, as is the prognosis that it will more than double agricultural growth from the lowly 1.9% seen in the last fiscal year. The happy tidings on the farm front won't end there. The joy could actually multiply by the last quarter of this fiscal year because abundant rains will benefit the increasingly important winter rabi crop more than...

-Reuters NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: India looks set for bumper harvests of winter crops such as wheat, chickpeas and rapeseed in the wake of a strong Monsoon that has left the soil moist and topped up reservoirs. The crops will follow bountiful summer harvests of rice and soybeans due to the rains, with New Delhi looking to boost agricultural growth to cool double-digit food inflation and revive a slowing economy as manufacturing struggles. With next...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Left-wing extremism, which afflicts several states, has killed a whopping 14,689 people, including 11,742 civilians and 2,947 security personnel, since 1980. However, the 4,638 fatal casualties on the Naxalites' side were just one-third of the killings carried out by them over the last three decades. The silver lining, however, is that the trends of Naxal violence are showing a steady decline in killings since 2010. As many...

-The Hindu Mining companies have received favourable impact assessments even as they do great damage to the environment because regulators are willing to look the other way Last week, world leaders concerned about economic development got together at the International Monetary Fund, and gave a series of most instructive interviews. Our Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, said that his problem was the slowing down of India's economic growth and reduction in government revenues....

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Swathes of eastern India resembled a gigantic overflowing bucket for parts of this week, with several areas flooded though the Monsoon rainfall in the region till September was a staggering 28 per cent below average. Twelve of the region's 15 large river-fed reservoirs were brimming with water on Thursday night. Water levels in three of Jharkhand's five large reservoirs were above the full capacity although the operators, facing the...