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...

-Reuters/ThePrint.in State like UP has received 500% more rainfall than normal so far in October. Higher food prices could prompt India to slap additional restrictions on exports of food commodities. Mumbai: Heavy rainfall in India has damaged key summer-sown crops such as rice, soybean, cotton, pulses and vegetables just before harvesting, which could stoke food inflation in Asia’s third biggest economy, farmers, traders and industry officials said. Higher food prices could prompt New...

-Livemint.com The government had in October 2021 announced concessional import duty on crude soybean oil, crude palm oil and crude sunflower oil till March 2022, which was once extended till end of September. This has now again been extended till next March, as per the order. NEW DELHI: The finance ministry has extended concessional basic customs duty and agriculture and infrastructure development cess applicable on edible oils by six months till end...

-Down to Earth blog Palm oil is water-intensive and requires large patches of land India is the second-largest consumer of edible oil globally and its largest importer. While the government has taken several initiatives over the years to increase the domestic production of edible oils, its shortage and high price are often in the news. Palm oil production grew between 2015-2016 and 2020-2021 at a compound annual growth rate of 6.1 per cent,...

-TheWeek.in Efforts on to substitute wheat and paddy crops with other market-driven crops Madhya Pradesh government launched a crop diversification promotion scheme with focus on natural farming and on substituting wheat and paddy crops with other crops that are suitable for local climate and are market driven. The crop diversification scheme has been launched for three years starting the current financial year (2022-23), to encourage demand-based crop diversification, keeping in mind the economic...