The next 72 hours will be crucial for the state as it battles to keep its head above rising floodwaters in the Mahanadi basin. Authorities kept an anxious watch on the situation today as Hirakud town was cut off from Sambalpur and the Pipli-Konark road was closed with several rivers still in spate. The government directed collectors of the 19 flood-hit districts to close down schools and colleges in the marooned...

In a face-off between advertisers and news broadcasters over the issue of the periodicity of reporting television rating points, the former has opposed the broadcasters’ proposal to have TRPs of shows move from a weekly to a monthly format. The News Broadcasters Association (NBA) last week had issued a letter to TAM, the body that measures television viewership in India, asking it to consider the option of reporting TRPs of programmes...

-The Times of India   What prompted the Comptroller and Auditor General from not quantifying the losses to the exchequer in the KG Basin contract and Air India decisions may never be known. But from the way the federal auditor conducted itself on the day the Reports were tabled one thing was clear-- there seems to be a rethink about the posture adopted by the constitutional authority in recent months. From its almost devil-may-care...

-The United Nations   World food prices remained virtually unchanged during the month of August, with only slight increases observed in the prices of cereals and meat, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported today. FAO’s monthly Food Price Index averaged 231 points in August compared to 232 points in July, the Rome-based agency stated in a news release. It was 26 per cent higher than in August 2010 but seven points...

-The Telegraph   The Centre tonight banned onion exports to check rising retail prices, re-imposing the curbs only six months after it lifted them following a dip. At the same time, it lifted four-year restrictions on overseas sale of wheat and non-basmati rice to ease storage problems following record production last season. “Onion exports have been banned with immediate effect. The ban will be reviewed on a fortnightly basis,” food minister K.V. Thomas said...