Teeth-chattering cold winds from Siberia to intensify; farmers worried, but wheat crop safe

Icy Siberian winds have chilled northern India and will intensify in the days ahead, making the winter even more severe, and highlighting the uncanny rise in extreme weather patterns such as droughts, hot spells and torrential downpours like the one that swamped Mumbai in 2005. For companies selling beverages, winterwear and heaters, business is booming with sales rising up to 40% in one of the coldest Indian winters in decades, but farmers are getting anxious about the impact on vegetables, pulses and oilseeds although the wheat crop is secure. The weather office says there is no quick relief in the offing.

To align with global prices and curb energy subsidies

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday reiterated his position of “phased rationalisation of energy prices to bring them in line with global prices” for “meeting the target of rapid, inclusive and sustainable development” and curbing energy subsidies. Speaking at the foundation laying ceremony of integrated refinery expansion project of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (BPCL) here, Dr. Singh recalled his speech at the National Development Council meeting in New Delhi in which he hinted about the pricing of energy.

The world must go back to harnessing the powers of the sun as it was done at the beginning of human civilisation to deal with global environmental changes, Taiwanese Nobel laureate Yuan Tseh Lee said on Sunday.

“We must return to sunshine to develop a more harmonious role with nature,” he said. “Once in history we were the children of the sun and were dependent on it for our needs, but we shifted to fossil fuels. We must dissociate ourselves from them and turn back to the sun to deal with global environmental change,” Lee said at the centenary session of the Indian Science Congress here.

Natural gas prices in the economy are expected to rise as a panel led by the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council chairman C Rangarajan has asked for linking domestic prices to an average of international hub prices and the cost of imported LNG.

The report submitted to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has also suggested scrapping the cost recovery clause in production sharing contracts (PSCs) the government signs with exploration companies in future. Instead it has suggested the share of the contractor should be determined through a competitive bid process. The recommendation is expected to avoid tussles like that of the oil ministry with Reliance Industries Ltd where the difference in cost recovery formula has almost led to arbitration.