India, one of the world’s biggest agricultural producers, experienced its heaviest monsoon rains in 25 years this year. While rain would normally cheer the agricultural heartland, the monsoon was erratic and has left many crops damaged. India is the world’s biggest producer of sugar, cotton and pulses and the second-biggest producer of wheat and rice. […]
Gods in India do answer prayers. The Kerala government is close to clinching a cashew supply pact with Andhra Pradesh for Tirupati Venkateswara temple which needs 3,000 kg cashew nuts daily for preparing laddus (a sweet) distributed as a holy offering. Other temples, under the Temple Board Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam, that use cashew nuts in […]
In a first since 1998, rough diamonds mined in India will now be up for display in Surat for auction by state-run National Mineral Development Corporation (NDMC) in association with Gems & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), reports Business Standard. So far, rough diamonds mined from the Panna mines in Madhya Pradesh were auctioned online but displayed only at Panna. However, […]
For the first time in history, the US 30-year Treasury yield fell below 2% and 30-year Germany Bund is offering negative yields. That means investors holding bonds for 30 years will get an amount less than what they had invested. The world is talking about an inverted yield curve, a precursor to global recession. Inverted […]
A forgery crisis is quietly roiling the world’s gold industry, claims a Reuters report. Gold bars fraudulently stamped with the logos of major refineries are being inserted into the global market to launder smuggled or illegal gold, refining and banking executives tell Reuters. The fakes are hard to detect, making them an ideal fund-runner for […]
According to a report in The New York Times, the top diamond miners in the world, including the two largest, Alrosa and De Beers, are facing a huge inventory problem. So do many of the cutters and polishers who buy the rough stones and sell them to retailers. At every stage of the supply chain […]
The gold bears have finally caved under the deafening barrage of fiscal and geopolitical catalysts, from Fed hints to intensely brewing conflict with Iran. Gold is already trading well above its 5-year high. Not only has the U.S.-Iran conflict reached a boiling point, with Trump readying to deploy an additional 1,000 troops to the Middle […]
The U.S.-China trade war is sparking so much fear over demand that even those parts of the commodity world that aren’t in the direct firing line are getting burned, says a report by Bloomberg Oil had its biggest sell-off in four years after U.S. President Donald Trump brought an abrupt end to a truce forged […]
European Union (EU) importers of Indian shrimp feel the number of Indian exporters shipping to the 28-member bloc has shrunk because of stringent testing norms. Importers in Europe have been complaining that the number of Indian exporters willing to export to the EU has shrunk. This is for warm water shrimp or prawn exporters. Apparently, […]
To bring in self-sufficiency in oilseeds sector, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has prepared a five-year road map, under which area expansion and productivity increase will be the major focus. However, the actual implementation of the proposed initiatives will depend on the budgetary allocation for the self-sufficiency programme, says a report in Financial […]
