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The Tribune February 27, 2020 The hazards of pesticides Amidst a hurricane of lawsuits that agrochemical multinational Bayer-Monsanto faces in the US and elsewhere over its herbicides Roundup and Dicamba’s alleged link to cancer, a joint investigation by Unearthed, a journalists’ research group founded by Swiss NGO Public Eye and Greenpeace UK, found that India tops the global chart with nearly 59 per cent of the sales being of ‘highly hazardous pesticides’. Japan follows with 52 per cent; Brazil, 49 per cent; US, 36 per cent; and the UK, only 11 per cent. As per a report in The Guardian, agrochemical companies have disputed this data. Bayer has specifically termed it ‘misleading’, but has still not countered it with its own data. Meanwhile, CropLife International, a powerful lobby group of the agro-chemical industry, claims only 15 per cent of its products are ‘highly hazardous’, 10 per cent that can be ‘used safely and responsibly’. Nevertheless, according to the...

Rutam Vora  Ahmedabad | Updated on January 31, 2020 Exporters look to increase share in other markets The outbreak of coronavirus, which spread from China to over a dozen countries, is unlikely to pose a major threat to India’s cotton exports as India’s rates are competitive in the international market and the exports can be diverted from China to other markets, a trade body has said. Downplaying the threat from coronavirus and its impact on the export trade, the Cotton Association of India (CAI), the apex trade body, said there are no specific concerns. ‘No worries’ “On the export front, we are doing good and there is no concern over China virus scare. Exports are going on smoothly and we have so far exported about 600,000 bales (each of 170 kg) to China. Total exports stand at about 22 lakh bales, which means we will be able to achieve our export target very comfortably,” Atul Ganatra, President, CAI, told BusinessLine. The CAI in its latest estimate has pro...