-The Hindu Business Line Trade deficit widens as imports rise; exporters worried about future New Delhi: A fall in exports of gems & jewellery, petroleum products, readymade garments and farm products pulled down India’s overall exports (year-on-year) by a marginal 0.6 per cent to $29.11 billion in March 2018. Exporters are worried as several of the sectors that have taken a hit are labour-intensive, which they say is due to liquidity problems. Exports, however,...

-Livemint.com Plant varieties and seeds cannot be patented under Indian law by companies like Monsanto, and any royalties on GM crops will be decided by the Agriculture ministry, says Delhi high court New Delhi: Plant varieties and seeds cannot be patented under Indian law by companies like Monsanto Inc., and any royalties on genetically modified (GM) technology will be decided by a specialized agency of the Agriculture ministry, the Delhi high court...

-The Hindu Business Line The Indian wheat situation is turning worrisome, not because of the over-optimistic production estimate released by the Ministry of Agriculture recently, but because of the current price levels that provide no encouragement to farmers. Fraught with possibilities, the wheat may go the pulses way. The policy-makers may soon be forced to impose import restrictions in the form of higher tariffs. Output, prices To start with, no one in the trade...

-The Hindu Farmers’ protests interrogate the reigning development model.   Alternatives do exist The recent spate of peasant protests across wide swathes of the country points sharply to the unjust folly and sheer unviability of the path of development that India has embraced, especially in the reform era since the late 1980s. Even, say, a modest food critic in metropolitan India collects an immodest annual pay package which can easily go into seven figures....

-Frontline.in The government ought to have specified its definition of cost of crop production in the Budget to prevent any confusion in the minds of people on minimum support prices. Speaking at the Krishi Unnati Mela 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reportedly complained that confusion was being spread about the announcement on minimum support prices (MSPs) made in the Finance Minister’s 2018 Budget speech. The speech had assured farmers that they would,...