By Richard Black 

Parts of India are on track for severe water shortages, according to results from Nasa's gravity satellites.

The Grace mission discovered that in the country's north-west - including Delhi - the water table is falling by about 4cm (1.6 inches) per year.

Writing in the journal Nature, they say rainfall has not changed, and water use is too high, mainly for farming.

The finding is published two days after an Indian government report warning of a potential water crisis.

That report noted that access to water was one of the main factors governing the pace of development in the world's second most populous nation.

By David Loyn
International development correspondent, BBC News 
 
On World Food Day in 2007, the early warning signs that something serious was about to happen to food prices were already apparent.

Crop forecasts from big producers at opposite ends of the world last October - Canada and Australia - were disastrous. Both countries were in the grip of drought.

A steady rise in food prices began, spurred by oil price rises that were the most rapid since the early 1970s, knocking on to higher transport costs and fertiliser prices for food producers.
The unprecedented spike in food price rises in January was led by steadily increasing demand, particularly from hundreds of millions of newly rich in the rapidly growing economies of Asia, who wanted to eat better food than their parents had been able to afford.

Written by Emily Tan    
Tuesday, 11 August 2009 11:12 
 
The Malaysian consumer is evolving. From self-denial to self-indulgence, from materialism to experientialism and from preferring Western values to choosing Asian wisdom. These were among the findings published in the recently released Grey Group 2009 Eye on Asia study that marketers can leverage on to better understand consumers.

The study was based on a quantitative survey conducted online and face-to-face towards the end of last year. The survey spanned 16 Asian countries and involved 8,100 respondents, with 500 or more respondents from each country. In Malaysia, about 500 respondents were involved.

By Jonathan Head
BBC News, Bangkok 
 
The first rains of the year have been falling for a couple of months now in Thailand’s often dry north-east, and farmers are out most days in the freshly-flooded fields, transplanting young jasmine rice seedlings.

They work quickly, bent over double, expertly spacing the seedlings in the silt.

But it is back-breaking work. And although jasmine is one of the most highly-prized rice varieties – it is grown almost exclusively in north-eastern Thailand – the farmers in this region are some of the poorest people in the country, most of them mired in debt.

The price of raw sugar has increased to its highest level since 1981, as supply concerns grow.

Raw sugar futures added 3% on Monday, to finish the day at 22 cents a pound.

"The main problem is a deficit in sugar supplies," said Nick Penney, a trader with Sucden Financial, a firm that focuses on sugar trading.