The issue of reduction in foodgrain allocation to Kerala rocked both the Houses of Parliament. While the Left members staged a walkout in the Rajya Sabha, their counterparts in the Lok Sabha also registered their protest asking the government to raise the allocation to the State.

Rajesh Ravi

The Coimbatore-based Sabols, a leading packaged drinking water company in South India, is repositioning itself as Sabols Foods India Pvt Ltd to tap the growing ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook food market in the country. "We want to be a pan Indian company catering to the discerning, quality conscious consumers across the country,' KM Senthil, chairman said.

Standing paddy across 10,000 hectares have been destroyed by unseasonal rains. No labour was in supply to harvest the crop in time.
Mechanical harvesters couldn't be used since the CPI(M)'s union refused to give timely permission
It requires union consent for Kerala farmers to bring in labour from outside or use machines
Five farmer suicides in the last fortnight.

For the first time, the meteorological department will give probability estimates of drought and excess rainfall for the country as part of its much-awaited April forecast of the southwest monsoon. The department will continue to stick to a new technique it used last year for forecasting the monsoon though it led to predictions that turned out to be way off.

POLICE in the city are in an unenviable position as sandalwood trees continue to be the target of thieves who smuggle them to Kerala, from where they are taken to other states. This despite various measures taken by them to bust the smuggler gangs. Police sources said some time back there were factories in Kerala making oil from sandalwood smuggled from Tamil Nadu, but as the Kerala Government has banned production of sandalwood oil, the smugglers clandestinely transport the logs to other states through Kerala.

AGRICULTURE, food and civil supplies minister Sharad Pawar on Wednesday frustrated attempts by the Congress Left-combine to put the blame for the current bout of inflation on opposition-ruled states.