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- Amid tightening food safety regulations overseas, rice millers are offering cash incentives to Basmati growers in a bid to wean them away from using pesticides.
- Farmers are being promised Rs 500 more per quintal of paddy for not using pesticides and fungicides that do not confirm to latest global specifications, and also for limiting dosages of others, traders told ET. The incentive is expected to double for farmers in Jammu as harvest period draws closer.
- Indian rice exporters are worried that Europe’s stringent norms on pesticide residue levels, and the likelihood of similar standards being adopted by Saudi Arabia, will hit exports of basmati if farmers fail to conform. As per a recent circular issued to exporters by the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SAUDA), the pesticide residue levels have been restricted by 90%.
- “It is not feasible to meet European specifications in exports to Saudi Arabia as exports to the continent are currently restricted to brown PUSA, whereas varieties in demand in the Gulf country are different,” said Sanjiva Rishi, head marketing at Kohinoor Foods.
- Rice exporters have been advised by Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) to not send high quantities of rice shipments to Saudi Arabia this week. The Gulf nation is warranting certification from exporters about compliance of MRL guidelines on shipments.
- “There is possibility of shipments getting cancelled till the matter is resolved with the Saudi authorities,” an official at APEDA said.
- Akshay Gupta, head of exports at KRBL, said, “Export of rice is already down to Europe and the US due to stringent residue norms and a hurdle in export to Saudi Arabia will affect basmati exports hard. The new norms from Saudi Arabia have come as a surprise as no timeframe has been extended for implementation.”
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- Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai is calling for the rebuilding of 11 schools torched by suspected Islamic extremists in northern Pakistan.
- The schools were burned down early Friday. No one was wounded as the buildings were closed at the time. Police have yet to arrest any suspects.
- Yousafzai, 21, was shot and wounded by the Pakistani Taliban in 2012 for promoting girls'education.
- She expressed her anger over the latest attack in a tweet on Friday, saying "extremists have shown what frightens them most - a girl with a book."
- Imran Khan, who is expected to become the next prime minister after his party won the most seats in last month's elections, also condemned the attack on the schools
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- ndia has become the third Asian country after Japan and South Korea to get the Strategic Trade Authorization-1 (STA-1) status after the US issued a federal notification to this effect, paving the way for high-technology product sales to New Delhi, particularly in civil space and defense sectors.
- India is the 37th country to be designated the STA-1 status by the United States.
- The federal notification, issued yesterday, gains significance as the Trump Administration made an exception for India, which is yet to become a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).
- Traditionally, the US has placed only those countries in the STA-1 list who are members of the four export control regimes: Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), Wassenaar Arrangement (WA), Australia Group (AG) and the NSG.
- In its federal notification, the Trump Administration notes that India is a member of three of the four multilateral export regimes.
- Mainly because of the political opposition from China, India's membership application has been pending before NSG, which takes decision by consensus.
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- has a new highest point. The Scandinavian country's highest peak lost its title this week because record heat has been melting away the tip of a glacier that sits atop the , experts say.
- A month ago, the mountain's southern peak held the title, soaring to 2,101 metres above sea level. On 31 july after weeks of high temperatures, it was 2,097 metres high - only 20 centimetres, or about six inches, taller than the north peak, said Professor Gunhild Rosqvist, head of the near the mountain.
- By 1 August enough had melted to take it below the critical height, Rosqvist said, handing the northern peak the crown. "We can estimate the melt rate based on temperature measurements. We know that it has melted because it is very hot," she said. "We are going to measure again later this summer when the melting stops. In a month, we'll know how bad it is."
- The shrinking peak is symbolic of climate change that also brought marked shifts for animals and vegetation, she said, and badly affected the region's reindeer herders.
- July was the hottest on record in many parts of Sweden, with drought and some of the worst forest fires the country has seen. Even if the northern peak is higher when the mountain is measured at summer's end, the southern tip is likely to grow again in winter.
- The peaks could then take turns as Sweden's highest point over the next few years. The southern peak was first measured in 1880, when it stood at 2,123 metres. Its height has varied from year to year, growing in colder years and shrinking in warmer ones. But since 1995, it has shrunk almost a meter a year, with few exceptions, the newspaper 'Dagens Nyheter' reported.
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- Europe sweltered Saturday in intense heat with temperatures hitting near-record highs of 46 degrees Celsius (115 degrees Fahrenheit) in Portugal, while elsewhere high temperatures melted the or saw police dogs fitted with shoes.
- The heatwave was expected to reach its peak on Saturday, said Paula Leitao of the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA). In Monchique in the south, a forest fire raged on two fronts, aided by "a temperature of 46 degrees but a real feel of 50 degrees" and very little humidity in the air, Victor Vaz Pinto, head of rescue operations in the district, told local media.
- So far, close to 740 firefighters helped by 10 water-dropping planes and helicopters were working to put it out, according to Vaz Pinto and the civil protection agency.
- In Lisbon, authorities have closed playgrounds and called on people to avoid picnics and outdoor activities. Refuges for homeless people have also opened earlier in the day to allow them to take shelter from the crushing heat. In southern Spain, the heat continued to pound the tourist city of Cordoba reaching 44 C.
- The soaring mercury has already claimed the lives of three people this week. A middle-aged man in Barcelona, who media said appeared to be homeless, was found collapsed on a street 3 August and taken to hospital where he later died of heatstroke, Catalonia's civil protection agency said in a statement.
- Two other men - a roadworker in his 40s and a 78-year-old pensioner tending to his vegetable garden - also died from heatstroke this week. In Vienna, police dogs due to patrol a tournament were fitted with special shoes.
- Police said that even if temperatures were not excruciatingly hot, reaching just 34 degrees Celsius on 4August the dogs would have to spend hours walking on surfaces asphalt beach volleyball authorities closed certain sections of highways where the heat had melted the asphalt. The central city of Zwolle, meanwhile, started cutting the branches of some 100 poplar trees
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- Britain's youngest known Islamic State female terrorist plotter who had been convicted of planning a terror attack in the UK earlier this year has been jailed for life. Moroccan-origin Safaa Boular, 18, was convicted of preparing terrorist acts on British landmarks after failing to travel to to join ISIS militants.
- She will serve a minimum of 13 years behind bars before being considered for parole. Boular appeared in court on 3 August wearing a short skirt and western clothing, claiming that she had rejected Islam and her extremist views. But the judge ignored her claims to have turned over a new leaf during the sentencing hearing at the court in London.
- "In my view there's insufficient evidence to say at this stage this defendant is a truly transformed individual. Her views were deeply entrenched," Judge Dennis said. "However much she may have been influenced and drawn into extremism, it appeared she knew what she was doing and acted with open eyes.
- She was old enough to make her own decisions and her own choices," he said. The teenager was preparing for her school exams when she was seduced by ISIS fighter Naweed Hussain, originally from in England and more than 15 years her senior.
- She hid her ISIS-inspired plans to attack crowds at the in coded conversations about preparations for an innocent Mad Hatter's tea party. She had been trying to reach Syria to marry Hussain in an online ceremony, but her attempt was foiled by police. Hussain was later killed in a drone strike. Boular turned to plot a suicide bomb and gun attack on the British Museum with her older sister and mother instead.
- All three women have now been convicted for their part in the UK's first all-female terrorist attack plot. Boular's sister, 22-year-old Rizlaine Boular, has been jailed for life and their mother Mina Dich was handed six years and nine months for assisting her daughters in the plot in June.
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- The Finance Ministry has issued a notification to defer the retaliatory duty on import of over two dozen products till September 18. Earlier, higher duty was scheduled to come into effect from August 4.
- In an effort to resolve differences, the Commerce Ministry has requested the Finance Ministry to extend the implementation of higher duty by 45 days, which later accepted.
- It may be noted that the Government, on June 21, had decided to hike the import duties after the Trump administration’s decision to unilaterally raise the import levies on certain steel and aluminium products earlier this year, which had a tariff implication of ₹241 million on India. India’s measures are expected to have an equal impact on the US.
- Indication of deferment came on the day of issuance of notification itself. Normally, any change to indirect taxes such as import duty (also known as Customs duty) comes into effect from the date of the notification. However, in this case, it was decided to impose from August 4. After detailed discussion internally, it has been decided to defer.
- Though the US Trade Representative's office had two rounds of dialogue with Indian officials, a compromise could not be reached. The government is now hoping that the issue can be resolved in the next 45 days.
- Five World Trade Organisation members, including the EU, China and Turkey, which are also at the receiving end of higher import duty on steel and aluminium by the US, have already imposed retaliatory duties against US goods.
- June 21 notification includes 29 products: walnuts, almonds, pulses, apples and non-iron among others. Shelled almonds imported from the US will attract an import duty of ₹120/kg against ₹100/kg earlier.Almonds in shell will attract an import duty of ₹42 per kg (up from ₹35/kg). Levy on walnuts in shell will be 120 per cent, against 30 per cent earlier; apples will attract 75 per cent import duty, up from 50 per cent.
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