-The Times of India   NASHIK: Brace up for an onion price hike again. Unseasonal rains and hailstorms in Nashik district have pushed up onion prices by about 40% in a week at the country's largest wholesale onion market, the Lasalgaon Agriculture Produce Market Committee (APMC), In the district APMCs, the average wholesale onion prices, which were in the range of Rs 575 to Rs 801 a quintal on April 10, rose...

-Deccan Herald   Barely emerging out of the shadows of freak weather, the warning of a weak monsoon will push millions of farmers into dire straits. In the midst of all the noise and muck-slinging that dominates the election campaigns there is bad news on the horizon. No, I am not talking of the possibility of a hung Parliament where the numbers don't add up for any political front, but the possibility of...

-The Hindu   Price rise is one of the key issues in this election, and the latest data on inflation spell bad news for the incumbent UPA government; the monster is rearing its head again after lying low over the last three months. Retail inflation, specifically food price inflation, has rebounded in March on the back of rising prices of vegetables and fruits. Wholesale food prices rose 9.9 per cent with rice...

-The Hindustan Times Maharashtra: Vidarbha is an unforgiving place, parched, dry and restive. It is a place of waiting - for the rains, for Dams, for a harvest that may never come. Lately, there's been a storm brewing in these 11 arid districts "All of Maharashtra is getting richer, but here in Vidarbha, everything is standing still," says Sachin Gawande, 30, a graduate and farmer from Risod town in Akola. "Ours remains...

-The Economic Times     There is a narrative that the UPA's rule at the Centre led to an economic disaster, especially in the second term. In contrast, Gujarat has prospered, thanks to Narendra Modi's good governance. We have several problems with this. First, through UPA's first term and about halfway into its second, many economic indicators critics like to harp on were much better than those during the NDA days. This is true...