-Down to Earth Higher MSP, dearer imports expected to keep rates firm for local oilseeds     India looks set for a bumper mustard harvest this rabi season, which raises the question: Will those growing the oilseed reap enough compensation for their effort? Increased supply generally suppresses prices, but experts are optimistic that mustard farmers will duck that trend this time. The country has already achieved its mustard acreage for 2025-26 this rabi...

-Down to Earth Unfavourable, unreliable weather hurt agriculture, in turn pushing food prices our of reach across the world At 14.23 per cent, India’s wholesale inflation rate in November 2021 was the highest in three decades. It did reduce marginally to 13.56 per cent the next month, according to government data released January 14, 2022. But even that is bad news for the Centre ahead of Assembly elections in five states, including...

-Hindustan Times The protests over problems with recruitment for railway jobs in the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, may well be India’s first large-scale unemployment riots The protests over problems with recruitment for railway jobs in the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, may well be India’s first large-scale unemployment riots. The protests have taken place across a large number of places in these two states. News reports suggest that at...

-The Telegraph The state’s expert advisers assert that the earlier lower counts were not deliberate but the outcome of a lack of clear definition of Covid-19 deaths Bangalore: A paradoxical rise in Kerala’s Covid-19 mortality rate despite a shrinking epidemic ahead of omicron’s emergence reflects diligent death auditing under political pressure, public demand and good record-keeping lacking in other states, health experts have said. The auditing efforts had till Monday added over 16,900...

- The India Cable/ TheWire.in India is now one of the most unequal countries for both income and wealth inequality — and has shown the most rapid increases in inequality. The Paris-based World Inequality Lab has become a major source of data on global inequality, based on careful aggregation of national data from a multitude of sources, of both income and wealth inequality, at national, regional and global levels. Their latest World...