KEY TRENDS   • Oxfam India's 2023 India Supplement report on poverty and inequality in India reveals that the gap between the rich and the poor is widening. Following the pandemic in 2019, the bottom 50 per cent of the population have continued to see their wealth chipped away. By 2020, their income share was estimated to have fallen to only 13 per cent of the national income and have less than 3...

Reuters India's wheat plantings remained steady despite a rally in price of the staple to a record as farmers in a key producing central state shifted to rapeseed (mustard) to take advantage of even higher prices for the oilseed, farm ministry data showed on Monday. A lower-than-expected planting area in the world's second biggest wheat producer may cap an expected rise in production, after output fell last year because of a heatwave...

-The Hindu Business Line The extended ban has affected the turnover of commodity exchanges * What are the agri commodities in which futures trading has been banned by SEBI? SEBI has banned futures trading in seven agri commodities, including the derivatives of two produce. The banned commodities are non-basmati paddy, wheat, chana (Bengal gram), mustard seed and its derivatives, soyabean and its derivatives, crude palm oil and moong (green gram). * Why were they...

-Hindustan Times Retail inflation in November dipped below 6% for the first time in 11 months, beating analyst estimates, on the back of a sharp deceleration in food prices, especially of vegetables and edible oils, although a spike in cereal prices is a matter of concern. New Delhi: Retail inflation in November dipped below 6% for the first time in 11 months, beating analyst estimates, on the back of a sharp deceleration...

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...