-Livemint.com The APMC legislation has in effect created fragmented markets—small trading zones that can quite easily be captured by trader cartels Makeshift markets have sprung up in several cities in Maharashtra over the past few weeks, after the state government led by Devendra Fadnavis allowed farmers to sell vegetables and fruit directly to consumers. They are now allowed to bring their produce directly to cities rather than sell them in markets...

-The Hindu Fine particulate matter from industries, cars and biomass causing premature mortality. Air pollution could have killed at least 600,000 Indians in 2012, a study conducted by the World Health Organisation and made public on Monday said. That is about a fifth of the 3 million who died worldwide because they were exposed to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) that may have aggravated or been directly responsible for cardiovascular diseases and lung cancer. India...

-The Times of India VIJAYAWADA: The farm credit disbursal system in the state remains crippled for a long time now as a majority of tenant farmers, who constitute about 80 per cent of the cultivators in the state, are unable to avail of the loan facility. Experts say the latest recommendations by the bankers' sub-committees also do not reflect the reality. In fact, they fear the recommendations will only aggravate the...

-The Hindu Governance performance ranked over a decade Regional disparity has been growing over the years, shows a new study which evaluates the governance performance of 19 major States. The Research, conducted by Sudipto Mundle, Samik Chaudhury and Satadru Sikdar, was published in The Economic and Political Weekly earlier this month. Five of the six best-performing States in 2001 — Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Punjab — continue to be the...

-TheWire.in A study shows that lower the average income of a country, the lower is its consumption of fruits and vegetables. Nearly 60% of the people in low-income countries, including India, cannot afford the recommended daily intake of fruits and vegetables, Research published in the British medical journal Lancet has concluded. Most nutritional guidelines recommend the consumption of at least two servings of fruits and three servings of vegetables per day. However, according...