-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court asked the Reserve Bank of India on Monday to break its 10-month silence and reveal its decision on complaints that banks do not reduce floating interest rates on existing loans for buying homes, vehicles or consumer durables proportionate to its repo rate cuts (rate at which RBI lends money to banks). Petitioner ‘MoneyLife Foundation’ told the court that it wrote to RBI last...

-The Times of India CHANDIGARH: Waste dumped in landfill sites is contaminating surrounding groundwater in the Tricity, according to a PGI study published recently in an international journal. Scientists fear non-segregation and unregulated dumping of the garbage has deteriorated the quality with the passage of time, an alarming sign. Experts say that once the groundwater becomes polluted, contamination persists and becomes difficult to treat due to physical inaccessibility. Concentrations of heavy metal ions...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Centre is mulling bringing organic produce under the minimum support price (MSP) regime to promote pesticide-free farming in the country. At present, there is no support price for organic produce, except in Sikkim which approved it in May for horticultural items. The agriculture ministry recently discussed offering 20% higher MSP for organic farm produce over traditional (non-organic) produce and procuring a minimum 10% of organic...

-The Times of India KUSHINAGAR, UP: The two sons of Sonwa Devi were very ill and hungry for days until they died, almost together, on September 14, unaware of the fact that the government, far away from their wretched lives in the eastern UP district, had celebrated September as National Nutrition Month to mark India’s fight against malnutrition. A few kilometres away, in Rakba Dulma Patti village, Virendra Musahar and his family...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: India has informed the World Trade Organization (WTO) that its proposed national agriculture export policy would be consistent with global trade rules. In a meeting held last week to review farm policies of various countries, India’s proposed policy drew attention owing to concerns over its potential impact on global markets. The policy aims to do away with restrictions such as minimum export prices or outright bans as...