-The Indian Express What is disturbing is that in the middle of the current crisis some are now calling for a massive downsizing of the PDS and a shift to cash transfers in place of foodgrains. The Public Distribution System has played an important role in providing relief to people in the aftermath of the national lockdown. With COVID-19 cases increasing and the economy continuing to be in a downturn, some corrective...

-The Hindu Business Line While a cross section of the industry says the chemical has reported no toxic effect so far, planters say they’ve no other option Bengaluru: At a time when the Indian farmers are increasingly relying on weedicides to protect their crop yields and keep costs under control, Bayer’s $10.9-billion settlement with the Roundup plaintiffs in the United States could possibly see the demand for ban on glyphosate gain momentum...

-The Hindu Flooding hits OIL well blowout capping operation, AIR station in Dibrugarh inundated Guwahati: A landslip, induced by heavy rainfall, killed a minor in Arunachal Pradesh capital Itanagar on Thursday while a woman drowned in twin city Naharlagun. Another person drowned in Assam’s Dhemaji district as the death toll in floods and landslips since mid-May rose to 36. Officials in Itanagar said the body of the minor was retrieved from under the...

-The Indian Express That’s the actual liquidity pumped into rural areas by government post lockdown – through grain procurement, PM-Kisan and MGNREGA wages. There are many parallels one can draw between the novel coronavirus-induced lockdown (gharbandi) and demonetisation (notebandi), in terms of their impact on India’s farm economy. Both resulted in the same thing – demand destruction – albeit through different routes. Notebandi caused a haemorrhaging of liquidity from the predominantly cash-based farm...

-The Indian Express Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in an interview with The Associated Press that what needs to be done is to make countries understand that by acting in isolation “they are creating the situation that is getting out of control” — and that global coordination is key. The United Nations chief criticised the total lack of international coordination in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic and warned that the go-it-alone policy of many...