Moneycontrol – Online

Area sown to wheat has increased 1.40 per cent to 337.18 lakh hectare so far in the ongoing rabi season of the 2022-23 crop year (July-June), according to the agriculture ministry data released on Friday. Sowing of wheat, the main rabi (winter) crop, had begun in October, and harvesting will start from March/April. Farmers had sown wheat on 332.52 lakh hectare (ha) area in the year-ago period. Higher acreage has been reported from Uttar Pradesh (2.92 lakh ha), Rajasthan (2.52 lakh ha), Maharashtra (1.01 lakh ha), Bihar (0.81 lakh ha), Chhattisgarh (0.65 lakh ha), Gujarat (0.54 lakh ha), West Bengal (0.09 lakh ha), Jammu & Kashmir (0.07 lakh ha) and Assam (0.03 lakh ha), it showed.

The Print – Online

The reports and commentary on soil subsidence in the pilgrimage town of Joshimath in the Garhwal Himalayas, the consequent damage to houses, and the evacuation of endangered people have rightly mentioned the neglect of past warnings. Also mentioned in dispatches are the environmental risks involved in undertaking ambitious rail, road, hydel and other projects in a section of the Himalayas already prone to landslides and associated disasters because of large-scale deforestation. Joshimath and the media coverage it has provoked come accompanied by a larger concern about the environment: The poor quality of the winter air in cities and towns across the northern plains; the mountains of garbage that have piled up over the years in ...

The Financial Express – Online

While food inflation fell to 4.19% in December, the lowest since January 2022, thanks to a sharp fall in prices of vegetables, edible oils, meat products and pulses, the prices of several commodities such as spices, cereals and dairy products continued to be at elevated levels amid supply contraints. While stating that sharp corrections in vegetable prices eased up food inflation, Crisil said prices of most other food groups rose year-on-year. Cereals, which contributed majorly to inflation zooming past 7% for most of the first half of this fiscal, saw prices going up by 13.8% in December.