-The Times of India The bad news is hidden inside the good news. Seemingly comforting headlines tell us that inflation has hit a three-year low, with wholesale price increases slowing down to 7.2% in December. But the common man will take a hit with prices of food products shooting up by 11.2% - the highest increase in almost two years. Unlike in previous years, when increasing food prices were attributed to...

-Down to Earth Town's municipal body asked to first address objections filed by residents The decision of the municipal authorities of Khandwa, a medium-sized town in Madhya Pradesh, to hand over water supply services to a private company, has been stalled. The consumer Forum of Khandwa stayed the notification for water supply privatisation on December 31 and asked the city’s civic body to address all the objections raised by residents against the...

-The Economic Times India's consumer prices climbed 10.56 per cent in December from a year earlier. This will hold the RBI's rate-cutting hand and prove politically painful for the government. The increase in the consumer Price Index (CPI), over three percentage points more than the increase in the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) number, is due to a spurt in prices in the food and beverage category - mainly vegetables, oils and fat,...

-Down to Earth Becomes 17th state in country to impose ban on them The Andhra Pradesh government on January 9 banned manufacture, storage, sale, transport and distribution of gutkha, paan masala and similar chewable products that contain tobacco and nicotine. The ban has come into force with immediate effect. With this, Andhra Pradesh becomes the 17th state in India to ban tobacco products (see box). Civil society organisations and anti-tobacco activists have long...

-The Business Standard Govt's unbalanced food policy has disastrous results Consider the following discrepancies in the farm sector. The country is now the world’s largest exporter of rice, a crop grown with huge quantities of scarce water and heavily subsidised fertilisers. At the same time, it is the leading importer of pulses, which require very little water to grow and fortify the land with nitrogen to reduce the fertiliser need even...