A government report lends credence to the notion of “two Indias”, or the distinction between “India” and “Bharat” – a theme often debated in recent years. At a time when urban India is growing and policy makers have expressed clear preference for the trend, this report, by National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), brings India’s deep urban-rural divide into focus, showing disparities in scale and levels of expenditure and consumption and, equally...

-The Business Standard Planning for deficient monsoon must begin Now that the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has endorsed the fears expressed earlier by foreign weather bureaux about the emergence of the monsoon-unfriendly El Nino in the second half of the season, the government should begin preparing right away for mitigating its adverse impacts on agriculture, water reservoirs and other areas. El Nino, an anomalous rise in sea surface temperature off the...

The World of Work 2012 report presents a bleak picture of the global job situation. FOUR years after the global crisis erupted in 2008, organisations such as the International Labour Organisation (ILO) believe that labour markets still have not fully recovered. The world economy is not expected to grow at a sufficient pace over the next couple of years to overcome the crisis. These organisations present some depressing facts: those...

The dreaded El Niño weather phenomenon is set to appear during the second half of the southwest monsoon, which may cause less-than-expected rains in August and September. El Niño had earlier hit the Indian monsoon in 2009, when the country faced a severe drought. This time, its impact is not clear as of now, but if there are excessive breaks in the monsoon, crops of paddy, oilseeds and pulses could...

Veteran agricultural scientist and alumnus of Harvard and Berkeley Universities, Dr Peter Kenmore was in Mumbai for NABARD’s 30th anniversary lecture on ‘Future of Global Agriculture: Challenges and Opportunities for India.’ This United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization India representative spoke to Yogesh Pawar on the current scenario in agriculture. Some excerpts: There’s a lot of churn over GM technology in India. At a time when the country is grappling with...