-The Hindu Business Line As onion prices crossed ?100 a kg in certain localities in the capital, the government on Wednesday decided to relax fumigation and endorsement conditions for onions imported from other countries to ensure expedited delivery of the bulb. “In the light of public concern over high prices of onions in the market, the Ministry of Agriculture has decided to allow relaxation from the condition of fumigation and endorsement on...

-The Hindu Business Line The maximum crop damage was reported from Western Madhya Pradesh, which received 61 per cent surplus rains. Excess monsoon rains and the floods caused by them affected crops in many States, including Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Punjab, according to a kharif crop damage report released by private weather forecaster Skymet on Tuesday.   While 40 to 50 per cent of soyabean crop has been hit in Madhya...

-Hindustan Times Instead of paddy, farmers have to be incentivised to move to millets It feels like a war. The hapless farmers of Punjab and Haryana pitted against the angry, breathless urbanites of the National Capital Region. The farmers are burning paddy stubble, contributing to between a fifth to a third of the air pollution in Delhi these days. This has pushed the air quality to unliveable levels. It is endangering...

-Hindustan Times Beijing’s four-tier emergency response plan kicks in based on air quality index (AQI) forecasts and not actual recorded concentrations. Delhi’s deadly air pollution has exposed the lack of preparedness in NCR states to implement the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP). It has also shown that many interventions under GRAP should have kicked in much earlier based on forecasts rather than when particulate matter concentrations were already peaking. Beijing’s four-tier emergency response...

-The Hindu Business Line It should resolve its structural issues and become globally competitive before getting into such arrangements The RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership), which has been under discussion since 2012 and has the potential to alter trade expressively from its pattern to global politics, is reaching a crucial stage. Shakespeare’s analogy — paraphrased — “to do, or not do”, could not have been more apt for India in the given...