Menu from first Indian restaurant in Britain sells for more than $11,000

A mouth-watering menu from Britain's first Indian restaurant containing exclusive dishes like 'Pineapple Pullaoo' and 'Chicken Currey' has been sold here for $11,344.

Hindoostane Dinner and Hooka Smoking Club was established by Sake Dean Mahomed in 1809 at Portman Square in London.

Mohamed, an Anglo-Indian traveller and businessman with roots in Bihar, who was among the very early migrants to England from India, had opened the restaurant to bring the taste of Indian food to the UK.

However, the venture did not last long, with Mahomed declaring bankruptcy in 1812.

His restaurant struggled on as the 'Hindostanee Coffee House' under a new management for another 20 years, but finally disappeared in 1833.

A rare volume of a cookery manuscript containing the glimpse of the handwritten menu from the restaurant fetched 8,500 pounds (USD 11,344 or Rs 759,996) at a book fair here.

Final version of Trans-Pacific trade deal out, rules pushed by US on ice

The final version of a landmark deal aimed at cutting trade barriers in some of Asia-Pacific's fastest-growing economies was released on Wednesday, signalling the pact was a step closer to reality even without its star member the United States.

More than 20 provisions have been suspended or changed in the final text ahead of the deal's official signing in March, including rules around intellectual property originally included at the behest of Washington.

The original 12-member deal was thrown into limbo early last year when President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement to prioritize protecting US jobs.

The 11 remaining nations, led by Japan, finalized a revised trade pact in January, called the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). It is expected to be signed in Chile on March 8.

The deal will reduce tariffs in economies that together amount to more than 13 per cent of global GDP - a total of $10 trillion.

Rural debt, distress, death to be in focus as 8 states go to polls in 2018

Nearly four in ten of 8,007 Indian farmers who committed suicide in 2015 were in debt, compared to two in ten in 2014; more rural households went into debt over 11 years; and the average rural household had borrowed Rs 1.03 lakh, according to an IndiaSpend analysis of government data.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost 16 seats in rural Gujarat–winning less than 40% of such constituencies–as unrest grew in a failing farm economy. As eight states, including the BJP-run, largely agrarian states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Rajasthan go to the polls this year, we investigate, in a two-part series, how rural debt, distress and death are growing nationwide.

In an era of increasingly uncertain weather and suicides on farms, attributed to climate change and likely to worsen, the rural economic downturn is likely to be an important issue in the general elections of 2019, and it is unlikely Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promise that farmers will double their incomes by 2022 will be kept, as IndiaSpend reported in December 2016.

Chhattisgarh, MP and Rajasthan had a collective rural population of 123.6 million in 2011, equivalent to the current population of Mexico, the world’s 11th most populated country. Agricultural growth rates in all three states have declined, Hindustan Times reported in December 2017, while farmer unrest roiled MP and Rajasthan, as farmers struggling with falling crop prices demanded loan waivers and government guarantees for higher prices.
A key manifestation of the distress is rising rate at which farmers are committing suicides and its association with their inability to repay loans.READ MORE

US govt bans official use of the phrase 'climate change'

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has directed its officials to avoid using the term "climate change" in their work, and refer to "weather extremes" instead.

According to the Guardian, a series of emails between officials of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), a USDA unit that oversees farmers' land conservation, show the Trump administration had in February listed "climate change" in the "avoid" category. The term was replaced by "weather extremes".

An official statement from Bianca Moebius-Clune, director of soil health, instructed employees to use "resilience to weather extremes", instead of "climate change adaption".

The term "sequester carbon" is also ruled out and replaced by "build soil organic matter", the daily reported on Tuesday.

In an email to staff, Moebius-Clune said: "We won't change the modelling, just how we talk about it -- there are a lot of benefits to putting carbon back in the sail [sic], climate mitigation is just one of them."

In a separate email to senior employees, just days after Trump's inauguration, Jimmy Bramblett, deputy chief for programmes at the NRCS, said: "It has become clear one of the previous administration's priority is not consistent with that of the incoming administration. Namely, that priority is climate change. Please visit with your staff and make them aware of this shift in perspective within the executive branch."
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Qatar blockade is a warning to desert countries that rely on imported food

The wealthiest nation on the planet is facing a sudden experience of what poverty might be like, if relationships with its neighbours are not restored. Though Qatar has an extraordinary per capita income of $130,000, compared with around $57,000 in the US, it has a glaring weakness – the small desert peninsula imports around 90% of its food.

This has come to a head as a result of the blockade placed around Qatar by neighbouring members of the Gulf Co-operation Council, who accuse it of supporting militants. It furiously denies the claim. Because most of Qatar’s food had previously arrived across its only land border with Saudi Arabia, the blockade created the potential for imminent shortages, food inflation and unrest. Severe food shortages have only been averted thanks to urgent new deals with Iran and Turkey, which are flying and shipping food in.

Qatar is an important example of a nation potentially made complacent by its wealth. Why cultivate your own food when you can simply buy it in? The country also has a major food waste problem exacerbated by a regional culture of social extravagance. It appears to have given little attention to securing resilience within its food supply chains.

The blockades have exposed Qatar’s lack of domestic food production. Its hot, dry climate means most land is unsuitable for agriculture, and costs are high. The local food industry therefore does not have the knowledge, expertise or infrastructure to compete with cheaper, sometimes “loss leader” ranges of food imports that are seeking to create an anchor presence in anticipation of other food ranges to follow. Huge economic inequality also plays a role: wealthy, status-conscious Qataris prefer higher quality imported food, while at the other extreme a cost-conscious imported workforce cannot afford to be choosy.
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Budget 2017: Govt likely to hike agri-credit target to Rs 10 lakh crore

Latest News - The farm credit target is likely to be raised by a whopping Rs 1 lakh crore to Rs 10 lakh crore in Budget 2017-18 in order to increase credit flow in the agriculture sector.

According to sources, the government may increase the agriculture credit target to Rs 10 lakh crore for 2017-18 fiscal from the existing Rs 9 lakh crore.

During April-September period of 2016-17 fiscal, about Rs 7.56 lakh crore credit has been disbursed to farmers and the total target is likely to be surpassed.

That apart, the government may also allocate Rs 10,000 crore for Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bhima Yojana (PMFBY) in the Union Budget to be (Read More)