-Business Standard Chandigarh: The rising cost of fodder ingredients in the past few days has pushed the poultry industry into doldrums. An increase of the price of soya meal, a key ingredient, by almost Rs 1,000 per quintal, has left many small players worried. Against the cost of Rs 3 an egg, the farm gate price is between Rs 2.65 and Rs 2.70. P Tamil Arsan, vice-president of National Egg Co-ordination Committee...

-Hindustan Times The alleged lynching of a truck driver who was ferrying pulses by a mob recently in UP is a sad commentary about India’s inadequate price management systems. Wholesale prices, which plunged for the 11th straight month in September, could be masking a worrisome rise in food prices, leaving consumers to wonder why — even with declining inflation — their household budgets are spinning out of control. After onion, the prices...

-The Times of India BATAGUDA (Odisha): Women and men working on the hillsides is a common sight when travelling through Odisha's Kandhamal district. All day, they crouch in the scorching sun, using crude tools to break large rocks into little stones. It takes each person several days to fill a 5ft-tall container with enough stones to earn about Rs 900. Most tribal women do this backbreaking work but with hardly any proteins...

-The Hindu Forced dietary restriction has no place here. In the current battle for Bihar, caste has emerged as a more potent weapon than religion. There may be some churning among urban youth on caste-based quotas, their stated views depending not just on whether they have benefited from the present system but also on how they wish to be perceived — as pragmatic or forward-looking?. But cutting across the urban-rural divide, slicing through...

-India Today Agriculture powerhouse Madhya Pradesh still suffers from high levels of malnutrition, a contrast that exposes our flawed food policies Madhya Pradesh in mid-March is heavy with the scent of the Mahua blossom. Heaped at village bazaars, and now restricted largely to brewing liquor, its pungent smell is fast disappearing from indigenous tribal stews and curries. On the road to Petlawad and Alirajpur on the western edge of the state, farmers...