The Centre will introduce new guidelines for releasing subsidies to farmers for the purchase of farm machinery and tools, Union Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Shobha Karandlaje has said. A major portion of the subsidy is at present set apart for the purchase of tractors and farmers are not able to purchase other farm machineries and tools required for their daily work, she said.  The minister asked youth...

-Moneycontrol.com To become a reliable exporter, India needs to adopt climate-resilient technologies and a digital system of traceability of agricultural produce The success of the green revolution and the use of technology in agriculture made India a nation surplus in some crops. This enabled India to emerge as a large exporter of rice and sugar. In the following years, wheat was also exported, although Indian wheat was mostly uncompetitive in the global...

-The Hindu The WTO Panel reports are a pointer to the U.S. — the once undisputed trade hegemon — turning away from free trade and moving toward growing protectionism In a significant development in international trade law, four separate World Trade Organization (WTO) Panel reports have ruled that the tariffs of 25% and 10% on steel and aluminium, respectively, that the United States (U.S.) had imposed during the presidency of Donald Trump...

-Networkideas.org The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent war sparked rapid and dramatic increases in some global trade prices, particularly for fuel products, wheat and fertilizer for which Russia and Ukraine are major exporters. It is now clear that these price changes were not due to actual changes in total supply, which remained largely unchanged (although source locations and trade routes shifted). Instead, market expectations amplified by media hype, financial...

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...