What to Read in Indian Express Editorial( Topic and Syllabus wise)

EDITORIAL 1: Relief from food inflation

Context

At 2.1% year-on-year, India’s consumer price index inflation in June was below the 2.7% of the United States and 3.6% of the United Kingdom. That gap was wider in food, with the annual price increases at 3% for the US, 4.5% for the UK and minus 1.1% for India.

A huge relief

• Both overall retail and consumer food inflation falling to their lowest since January 2019 is a huge relief, especially for the Reserve Bank of India.
• The country’s central bank was, at least till six months ago, struggling to rein in inflation and, hence, unable to cut its policy interest rates.
• Much of it was courtesy of food, where India experienced sustained high inflation from roughly mid-2023 to the end of 2024.
• That ended with a surplus monsoon in 2024, translating into bumper crops.As the market arrivals of these crops – kharif  plus rabi  – picked up, food inflationary pressures eased from early 2025 and slipped into negative in June.

Cereal comfort

• The effects of favourable soil moisture and replenished groundwater as well as reservoir levels from abundant rainfall – 7.6% above the historical average or “normal” for the 2024 monsoon season  were best seen in wheat.
• Wheat stocks in government godowns last year on July 1, at 282.61 lakh tonnes (lt), were at their lowest for this date since 2008 and just above the minimum buffer of 275.80 lt.
• The government has enough stocks to feed the public distribution system and also offload in the open market for cooling down prices.This wasn’t the case till a few months ago.

Monsoon relief

• The monsoon set in over Kerala on May 24, eight days before the normal date. Rainfall in May was a whopping 106.4% above the country’s long period average (LPA) rainfall for the month.
• Cumulatively, all-India rainfall during June 1 to July 20 has been 7.1% above its historical normal for this period.
• Almost all states/regions – barring Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh, Marathwada, Assam, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh – have received above-par rains.

Kharif Crop Patterns and Prices

• Despite a second consecutive good monsoon boosting overall kharif sowing, farmers have reduced acreage under arhar (pigeon pea), soyabean, and cotton.
• This shift is driven more by low market prices than water shortage.
• Arhar and soyabean prices remain below government-declared MSPs, while cotton area has declined due to pest issues.
• Farmers are turning to more profitable and shorter-duration crops like maize and moong.
• However, reduced domestic production of pulses and oilseeds is unlikely to fuel inflation, as imports remain high and duties low, keeping prices in check.

Fertiliser shortfall

• Although the monsoon has had a great start, one cannot rule out its weakening or stalling in the coming weeks.
• The early rains, extending through July so far, have basically given a boost to kharif plantings.
• Any prolonged break phase hereon can affect the vegetative growth – the development of roots, stems and leaves – of the already sown kharif crop.
• But a bigger source of uncertainty could be fertilisers, the demand for which has shot up on the back of the monsoon’s timely advance.
• China’s export restrictions have led to a global supply squeeze, particularly in phosphatic fertilisers, reflected in landed prices of imported DAP into India soaring from an average of $525 in June 2024 to about $810 per tonne now.

Conclusion

Whether these shortfalls will have any impact on crop yields remains to be seen.

 

EDITORIAL 2: Inequality’s many champions

Introduction

Typically, the politics of gender in India has been a backlash against the perceived educational and financial independence of women. The reactions, particularly on social media, to the recent murder of a young tennis player allegedly by her father show that there are groups that view the rise of women celebrities and influencers as a threat to a system that rests on male power.

Recent cases

• Recently, Balasore district in Odisha faced a public bandh with angry citizens demanding justice for a 20-year-old student who had immolated herself after the college turned a deaf ear to her repeated complaints about a senior faculty member harassing her sexually.
• There is little sensible discussion over such deaths. Ironically, it is obvious from both these cases how, whatever the ground reality, gender equality has acquired the aura of an ideal socio-political stance for all Indian political parties.
• Even while defending perpetrators from their fold, all parties are quick to proclaim support for nari shakti and nari mukti.
• When elections are due, they promise subsidies and cash donations — now an inalienable part of all manifestos.
• But the promises printed on posters plastered all over town with the party supremo’s beaming mugshot hide the ugly reality that the daily news unveils.
• From Vinesh Phogat and Radhika Yadav, to the Balasore case, we can clearly see the injustices that prevail within homes and workplaces even for women who appear to be protected, well-off and financially independent.
• Whatever the politicians’ proclaimed position, scores of young Indian women are learning how their deemed empowerment may reveal another facet of their powerlessnessas daughters, mothers, sisters, students and employees.

To access justice

• Committees to register complaints against sexual harassment at the workplace often underscore a woman’s powerlessness to access justice.
• We also realise how daily actions and quips, seemingly innocent or unintended, remind women of all ages of the Laxman rekha marking boundaries of female ambition and what society/employers will expect of them after elections and Mahila Shakti Divas and Ladli bahin/ beti celebrations are over.
• We can claim to have some of the most progressive laws to help and protect women from sexual predators.
• In reality, women see the law and instruments of the state treating those without connections in high places as abstract creatures with abstract rights.
• In Amrit Kaal, no law will sanction a father shooting his daughter. But the state often only intervenes once the most serious crime has already been committed.
• No state allows kanwariyas to assault a girl on a scooty with shoesbecause she defiled their holy cargo either.
• No law in India will silence women or stop them from filing complaints of abuse against predatory male bosses.
• Women, though, know the standard reaction of college authorities, company boardrooms and office fact-finding committees in these circumstances.

Conclusion

Inequality has many champions on social media. Not just trolls but many well-known influencers openly victim-shame and promote prejudice. This impacts the young indelibly.