-Livemint.com Telangana 9th state to declare drought, adding to the agrarian crisis and posing a threat to the rural economy New Delhi: Telangana has declared a drought in parts of the state, becoming the ninth state this year to do so, highlighting the agrarian crisis that could cause a likely fall in the production of rain-fed crops such as pulses, oilseeds and cotton, and result in a further slowing of the...

-The Hindu But an Assocham study has warned of an increase in prices Amid concern that the price of rice may be next to shoot up after those of pulses and onion, trade bodies put forth divergent views. V.S. Sethia, former president and currently a governing council member of the All-India Rice Export Association, told The Hindu that apprehensions of a sharp rise in rice price were baseless as ample stock of regular...

-The Economic Times Blog Two apparently unrelated events — a sharp fall in factory output growth and a spike in consumer price inflation —point to deep problems underlying the economy. September industry growth fell to 3.6%, the lowest in four months. Meanwhile, the consumer price index (CPI) went up to 5% in October, higher than the consensus estimate of 4.8%, headed north for the third successive month. The rise in prices is driven...

-Hindustan Times Chandigarh/Patiala: After a bumper paddy crop, the fields are on fire in Punjab and Haryana, polluting the air with hazardous particles. Strangely, there wasn’t much hue and cry till a thick blanket of smog — a mixture of smoke and fog — enveloped Delhi, making city residents breathless. It’s the farmers of the two food-bowl states who are being blamed for the sudden deterioration in air quality and smog in...

-Livemint.com Nobel to Deaton calls for a celebration of not just his own work but also the contributions of a number of Indian economists who have engaged with similar issues The announcement of Angus Deaton winning the Nobel Prize in economics was unexpected but not surprising. His body of work over the years has influenced many of us who have worked on issues of poverty, nutrition and food security. It is...