Pioneer in short

Chaos in cloth, maze of maize

Is there a problem of plenty or plenty of problems? Farmers across India are distressed with the falling crop prices and, in some cases, they are not even able to recover the price of inputs and production.

Generally, a plentiful crop output, as is the case in the last season, is a reason to celebrate. According to the central agriculture ministry, rice and wheat production reached a record level of more than 1,500 lakh tonnes, and 1,180 lakh tonnes, respectively, which were 124 lakh tonnes, and 46.53 lakh tonnes higher than last year.

Additionally, moong (green gram) production increased to 42.44 lakh tonnes, soybean to 152.68 lakh tonnes, and groundnut to 119.42 lakh tonnes. Maize and millet output are estimated at 434.09 lakh tonnes and 185.92 lakh tonnes, respectively, compared to 376.65 lakh tonnes and 175.72 lakh tonnes last year. Similarly, oilseed output in 2024-25 is estimated at a record 430 lakh tonnes, which is 33 lakh tonnes higher than the figure in 2023-24.

J&K on high alert

Ahead of the 18th anniversary of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, the entire security grid across Jammu and Kashmir has been kept in a state of high alert to prevent any untoward incident. After the Jammu and Kashmir police busted the inter-State ‘White Collar’ terror module, leading to the arrest of a highly radicalised group of doctors, the security forces remain on their tenterhooks following the deadly blast in Delhi on November 10. To assess the preparedness of the security forces deployed at ground zero, Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha separately chaired a high-level security review meeting in Jammu on Sunday.

Lakshmi Mittal quits UK

Indian-origin steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, until now based in Britain and a regular on the country’s richest billionaires tally, has decided to quit the UK as the Labour Party-led Government’s feared tax shake-up for the super-rich nears, according to a UK media report on Sunday. Rajasthan-born Mittal is a resident in Switzerland for tax and will now spend much of his future in Dubai, according to the ‘The Sunday Times’.

The founder of ArcelorMittal steelworks is worth an estimated 15.4 billion pounds as per the 2025 ‘Sunday Times Rich List’, which ranked him the UK’s eighth richest man. Now, the newspaper references sources close to the 75-year-old industrialist to claim he has become the latest billionaire to leave the UK.