-Financial Express Higher sowing augurs well for bountiful wheat and oilseed production The resilience of India’s agricultural sector has been a positive factor in the India growth story. During the ongoing rabi season, the average area sown for wheat is up by 25%, to 25.5 million hectares as of December 9, from a year earlier. Area under oilseeds, too, is at record levels. All of this augurs well for bumper rabi crops...

-The Hindu  A steady stream of investments in rural locations over the last two decades has ensured that 42% of factories and 62% of fixed capital is in the rural side There is growing evidence to suggest that the most conspicuous trend in the manufacturing sector in India has been a shift of manufacturing activity and employment from bigger cities to smaller towns and rural areas. This ‘urban-rural manufacturing shift’ has often...

-ThePrint.in In recent years, fuel prices have been kept static for weeks before assembly polls, only to be changed soon after. However, there's no clarity over who's deciding the prices. New Delhi: Rising oil prices have meant that the Modi government is increasingly abandoning a dynamic pricing reform it had adopted in 2017 and is now exerting more control over fuel prices. Troublingly, government data shows that fuel prices are being kept...

-The Hindu There should be differentiation between pet animals, draught animals, commercial animals for food, animals for performance and entertainment, and zoo animals, says head of Poultry Federation of India As the last date to submit views and opinions on the draft Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Amendment) Bill ended on December 7, questions have been raised, particularly by poultry farmers and farmers, on the lack of clarity in defining cruelty and...

There is some respite expected for India in terms of prices of imported commodities. This may ease the depletion of its foreign exchange reserves. The country has faced a widening of its merchandise trade deficit from US$ -17.91 billion to US$ -26.91 billion between October 2021 and October 2022. The commodity price data provided by the World Bank in December 2022 (termed as The Pink Sheet) shows that energy prices plummeted by...