-The Hindu Business Line Mehsana (Gujarat): A monocropping culture, driven by healthy returns, threatens to hurt cotton farmers in Mehsana and other districts in the country's largest cotton-producing State, say agriculture experts working in the region. As the price of cotton slips due to excess supply and China scaling back on purchases, farmers in north Gujarat risk mounting their losses and the likelihood of reduced sowing in May. They had increased cotton...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government may negotiate prices of patented medicines with their manufacturers before allowing pharmaceutical companies to launch them in India. The move, a first of its kind, is also likely to be applied on patented drugs that are already being sold in the country, an official source said. An inter-ministerial committee, evaluating the mechanism to negotiate prices of patented medicines, has recently sought detailed information about...

-The Indian Express Having decontrolled petrol and diesel, the government's next focus is on containing fertiliser subsidies. Key to this is decontrol of urea and ushering in a system of crediting subsidy payments directly into the bank accounts of farmers. HARISH DAMODARAN explains the existing subsidy regime and the road ahead. * What's so special about urea decontrol? Urea is the only fertiliser whose maximum retail price (MRP) is still fixed...

-The Indian Express The Centre is reportedly considering decontrol of urea over a period of three years, at the end of which retail prices would be totally market-determined, with farmers getting a fixed per-bag subsidy to be credited directly to their bank accounts. If this happens, it will probably be the most politically challenging economic reform the Narendra Modi government undertakes. Given the crash in global oil prices, decontrol of diesel...

-The Hindu Business Line   Commerce Ministry asks poultry breeders to assess risk on fresh health concerns New Delhi: India is preparing a second line of defence to protect its domestic poultry industry against competition from cheap chicken leg imports from the US. With the World Trade Organisation recently ruling against India's ban on chicken import from the US on the grounds that it would lead to spread of bird flu, the Commerce Ministry...