-Brookings   India's agriculture policies aimed at improving its food security have received increased scrutiny following the December 2013 World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial meeting in Bali, where India's position on this issue almost doomed the entire talks. In fact, the growing use of agriculture subsidies by India and other developing countries like China are changing the dynamics of the WTO negotiations for new agriculture subsidies commitments, where the focus had previously...

-Down to Earth Studies indicate high food inflation As Met office predicts below normal rainfall because of El Nino this year, a study by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) has projected a 1.75 per cent GDP reduction and loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs in the unskilled sector. The report released recently says that five per cent deficit rainfall forecast by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) will...

-Live Mint To alleviate poverty and extend true food security to its people India must bring efficiency to public expenditures In the Indian economy, where almost half of the average household's expenditures goes toward food and half the labour force is engaged in agriculture, one cannot simply wish away the centrality of agriculture just because its contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) hovers around a comparatively low 14%. India's agriculture is responsible...

-The Business Standard   Agreement 'endorsed' by members and being legally vetted but will be part of the main Doha agenda only after a tenuous process After the euphoria over an "Indian victory" at the ninth ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Bali, Indonesia, not much has moved on the agreed agenda. The 159 members of the WTO managed to adopt the 'Bali package' after last December's meeting, the global trade...

-Bloomberg   Actual rainfall may be five per cent more or less than the prediction The monsoon in India, which provides about 70 per cent of annual rainfall, will be normal this year amid forecasts for the emergence of an El Niño that previously caused droughts, government officials said. Rain could be 96 per cent of a 50-year average of 89 cm (35 inches) in the June-September period, said two officials with direct knowledge...