-PTI WPI inflation, which was on a declining trend since December 2017, accelerated in April due to an unfavourable base effect, a seasonal uptick in food prices as well as the pass through of rising global crude oil prices. New Delhi: Inflation based on wholesale prices touched a four-month high of 3.18 per cent in April on increasing prices of petrol and diesel as well as fruits and vegetables. The Wholesale Price...

-Livemint.com For the first time during the tenure of the present government, overall inflation of food articles is negative, implying a decline in prices Last week the India Meteorological Department (IMD) presented its first forecast for the monsoon this year. The forecast at 97% of the long period average (LPA) suggested yet a third year of normal monsoon rains, following 2016 and 2017. This should have ideally brought cheer to farmers struggling...

-The Indian Express The main problem for farmers today is not production or having sufficient crop to sell. Instead, it has to do with prices that they are getting for their produce. The Met Department has forecast a third-in-a-row “normal” south-west monsoon this year, thanks to the very low probability of an El Nino event — the abnormal warming of the equatorial eastern Pacific Ocean waters, which is known to adversely impact...

-Livemint.com It is clear that not only has the govt failed to do anything to revive the sagging rural demand, it has also refused to acknowledge the demand problem The fact that the economy is on a downward slide is no longer a matter of debate. It is neither a technical issue nor is it a transient blip which will go away on its own. However, matters are complicated as far as...

-Livemint.com For Narendra Modi, the protests involving hundreds of thousands of farmers highlight his struggle to deliver on the promises that swept him to power New Delhi: Anger over falling farm incomes has spilled onto streets across a swathe of India’s largest states as farmers struggle with food price deflation and a breakdown of the informal agriculture economy. For Prime Minister Narendra Modi—already grappling with a sharp economic slowdown and looming job cuts...