HT  Syndication

Standing kharif crops in most UP districts are said to be in dire need of at least one good spell of rain immediately for survival, even as authorities keep their fingers crossed, anxiously waiting for the possible arrival of retreating monsoon in the state in the first week of October.

Barring eastern UP, the entire state is badly hit by a deficient monsoon posing a challenge to the kharif crops, primarily the paddy. “It is true that the monsoon has been quite deficient this year, especially in the western zone even as crops that are readying for harvesting urgently need one good spell of rain within a week or two,” said additional agriculture director, Rajesh Gupta.

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Wearing a soiled kurta-pyjama, Ajay Kumar was tending to his green fields in a rural village in Uttar Pradesh. The uncertainty of the past few months is gradually making way for hope and happiness. The lands are now green, and with a good monsoon forecast, Kumar was hopeful of a bumper harvest.

“When I had returned to my village in April, we had no hope and were staring at a bleak future,” Kumar said. “So, turning to our ancestral fields seemed the only way forward for us.”

Economic Times

Automobile and tractor manufacturers are stepping up production as they build inventory ahead of the main festivals, on hope that the momentum in demand seen since last month would pick up further ahead of Diwali.

Companies such as Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai Motor India, Mahindra & Mahindra and Toyota Kirloskar are going full steam ahead on building stock. The current inventory with dealers is lower than last year, so they are also ramping up capacity utilisation to have adequate stock during the festival season.

New Food Magazine

Is the milk we consume safe? According to the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), not really…

In July, the CSE hosted a virtual meeting to discuss the use of antibiotics within the world’s largest milk producer, Indian. Between 2018-19, the country produced a whopping 188 million tonnes.

However, a recent assessment conducted by the CSE has unearthed some “disturbing findings”.

Times Of India

For over a year, I have committed to giving up meat and becoming a vegetarian. Allow me to break down why this wasn’t just a decision taken in a flight of fancy, but one that was carefully measured, evaluated and understood. Right out of the gate, I’d like to establish one fact- I am now a vegetarian- not a vegan, nor following any other fad based diet out there. A vegetarian through and through. For a while there, belonging to a country with the world’s largest population of vegetarians- I didn’t think this would be such a cumbersome concept to understand or even practice. Who among us would disagree that Indian vegetarian cuisine is possibly the ...