-Hindustan Times The district collector said about 10 to 15 yaks die every year but admitted that this year’s death toll is higher than ever before. Siliguri: Around 300 yaks have starved to death due to severe cold and excessive snowfall at an altitude of around 15,000 feet in north Sikkim, forcing authorities to rush medical teams to save the remaining animals. The administration has described the incident as catastrophic and unprecedented. To save...

-The Hindu 35 lakh poultry birds killed in Odisha The initial estimate of Cyclone Fani’s damage to standing crops in Odisha has been pegged at Rs. 150 crore, but the State Agriculture Department warns that the destruction of storage facilities and harvested crops stored in the open could further spike those losses. Low insurance penetration could also exacerbate farmers’ losses, especially in the poultry sector. “Because of the advance warning, it was possible to...

-Livemint.com The inside?story?of?the?decline?of a?globally renowned statistical system and its effect on Asia’s third largest economy New Delhi: Toothless. Powerless. Impotent. These are the adjectives used to describe India’s apex statistical organization, the National Statistical Commission (NSC). And these haven’t been hurled by its detractors but by three former members of the NSC who have been part of the commission at different points in time. The NSC shot to prominence in December last year after...

-The Hindu Residents in the pilgrim town block traffic blaming Odisha govt. for lack of food Puri (Odisha): The was visible anger on the streets of Puri on Tuesday with thousands of cyclone-affected people struggling to get food and water four days after cyclone Fani hit the district. Although the Odisha government had said that cooked food was being provided to those who took shelter in different buildings including multi-purpose cyclone shelters, community...

  The year-on-year (y-o-y) growth rate in Agri Gross Value Added (GVA) deflator (an alternative measure of inflation) shows a rising trend between 2005-06 and 2009-10. In other words, price rise pertaining to the agrarian sector accelerated during the period under discussion. This particular trend has been observed irrespective of whether one uses the GVA/GDP back-series data (Base 2011-12=100) that was computed by the National Institution for Transforming India Aayog (NITI Aayog)...