-The Indian Express Ill-thought-out assertions about the efficacy of monetary policy can unhinge private expectations of inflation. The Indian Express recently published two articles by Surjit S. Bhalla on the subject of inflation in India (‘Where monetary policy is irrelevant', September 13 and ‘RBI, we have a problem', September 20). Bhalla's central thesis is that inflation in India is primarily driven by changes in the minimum support prices (MSP) for agricultural goods....

-The Economic Times Dinkar Patil, a farmer from Buldhana district in Vidarbha, Maharashtra, normally cultivates cotton on his 13-acre farm land. This year, however, he has skipped the cotton crop and opted for soyabean and tur dal. "The rainfall started late. I did not cultivate cotton because of the delayed rains and the huge increase in cost of cultivation of the crop," said Patil. He is expecting a fall of about...

-The Times of India JAIPUR: The arid regions of Rajasthan are the worst sufferer of climatic changes, according to Central Arid Zone Research Institute (CAZRI), Jodhpur. Eleven districts in this zone have seen a rise in surface heating, reduction in rainfall, change in crop pattern and low milk productivity of livestock. The inference emerged after CAZRI analyzed climatic data of this region from 1913 to 2013. The latest data received from...

-The Financial Express A mechanism is needed to compensate farmers for not exercising their right to sell productive land but continue to grow foodgrains. India finds itself in a piquant situation. While its population, and with it the number of poor, is growing, its cultivable land is not only shrinking, more worryingly, the economic returns of the agricultural use are diminishing vis-a-vis non-agricultural use. The situation may not be alarming right now,...

-Deccan Chronicle We are faced with two crises on a planetary scale - climate change and species extinction. Our current modes of production and consumption, starting with the Industrial Revolution and aggravated by the advent of industrial agriculture, have contributed to both. If no action is taken to reduce greenhouse gases, we could experience a catastrophic 4°C increase in temperatures by the end of the century. But climate change is not just...