The Daily Business Digest

India has over one billion people and it is the largest or second largest producer of many food items in the world, including sugar and wheat and rice. And over 50% of the country’s population depends on agriculture for their livelihood.
And agriculture in turn depends on yearly monsoon , since India has lesser water resources than what it wants for daily consumption. This year the monsoon has really played villain and has been lower by 25% over the long term average.
The government has declared drought in 200 of the 550 districts in the country, and has also warned that there could be a significant drop in the production of grains, pulses and oilseeds. The sugar prices have already shot up by 40% in the last three months, and even in the global markets they are ruling at 30 year high levels.
The government might be forced to go for further debt raising , which in turn could prove to be a big drag on the economy in the years to come. Also the spiraling of food prices is already pushing the inflation from minus two percent levels to near zero.
Overall Foreign investors may find this a strong reason to review their investments in the country.

The Iranian President Ahmedinajed has been declared the official winner of the recent Presidential elections, by the highest body of the government, after a thorough review of the election process.
The opposition group has been staging strong protests against the election results in the last several weeks, alleging mass rigging and bogus voting.
There were even reports of over 100% voting in many booths, which is possible only through bogus voting. The incumbent President Ahmedinajed has the full support of the Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Khamaneni and hence his team was always sounding confident of being declared the winner by the election authorities.
The supreme leader has indicated few days back that the protestors must accept the verdict of the Iranian public and accept the leadership of Ahmedinajed.
Ahmedinajed’s re-election could well be a negative for the US administration since he seems to be holding on to the tough stand against the Western world on Iran’s Nuclear ambitions.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, popularly known as LTTE, has been one of the most powerful anti-government force in the last two decades. The Sri Lankan Government has been suffering at the hands of LTTE very badly , in spite of spending millions of dollars in enhancing their military power.
LTTE had the support base of thousands of rich Sri Lankan Tamilians spread across the world, and was able to match the military power of Sri Lankan Government.
But in the last few years, especially post the September 11th attack on US, the support for LTTE was reducing and LTTE found it very difficult to buy arms and ammunition from illegal sources. That helped the Sri Lankan government to go on the offensive, and in the last 12 months, the Sri Lankan army has been able to totally eliminate the entire LTTE network and it officially declared victory over the dreaded LTTE last month.
The Sri Lankan government has now assured the Tamil Population in the country that they will be able to live peacefully without any fear. But the WHO has been raising apprehensions that the Sri Lankan government has been suppressing the helpless Tamil Population and is not allowing the WHO representatives to visit the country and take corrective measures.