-The Indian Express After 14 years, the Central government has held the minimum support price (MSP) for wheat constant at last year’s Rs 1,285 per quintal. There is, of course, still no guarantee that the price will not be changed if major producer states like Punjab and Haryana raise objections. But for now, the UPA government’s newly discovered zeal to push through another reform is heartening. It may also be useful...

-Live Mint All file notings can be made public now except those explicitly exempted  The Union cabinet on Thursday decided to withdraw controversial draft amendments to the Right to Information (RTI) Act that sought to restrict disclosure of government file notings. The move allayed the concerns of rights activists. The draft amendments would have restricted disclosure of file notings only to social and developmental issues. The government had to drop the move following...

-The Economic Times The fear of drought in India has abated with late precipitation of the monsoon in September this year. However, the country continues to suffer from a drought of formalised tabulated data of agro items on a real-time or monthly basis, though many estimates continue to fatigue the print and electronic media.  Red or green prices flashing on computer screens are taken for 'granted', but the discovery of future or...

-The Indian Express The export-import policy for farm products needs to be consistent and predictable Sal seeds are obtained from Orissa-based tribals for money that would not compensate them for even the cost of a bus ride to the state capital Bhubaneswar. The produce is, however, valuable as it is converted to sal seed butter, used in Europe by the chocolate industry. But one of the world’s fastest-growing chocolate markets, India, does...

-Outlook Foodgrains production in 2012-13 will be lower than last year's record output of 257.44 million tonnes but availability would be sufficient to meet domestic demand, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said today. Addressing the Economic Editors Conference, he said the government would make efforts to compensate the projected fall in kharif foodgrains output during the ongoing rabi season. "This year, production will definitely be less than last year. Last year was exceptional year,...