The Vice-President of India, in his address at the Chaudhary Charan Singh Awards 2024, underscored importance of journalism and agriculture in the nation's progress. He commended the awardees for their societal contributions and underscored the role of journalists in upholding democracy. He also highlighted the importance of agriculture in rural development and the necessity for the nation to concentrate on issues that have a longer shelf life than a day.
The Vice-President also addressed the challenges posed by disruptive technologies and the need to adapt to them. He emphasized the importance of technology like machine learning in neutralizing these challenges fast, but also stressed the need to work on it. He also highlighted the importance of agriculture in the development of rural areas and the need for farmers and their families to be involved in marketing, value addition, and generating clusters to become self-sufficient.
On a different note, the European Union is grappling with challenges from disgruntled farmers protesting against its policies. The farmers are frustrated with the rising costs of energy and fertilizer, essential farming inputs, which have increased sharply since Russia, the leading supplier of both, has been sanctioned over its invasion of Ukraine. The farmers are also dealing with more frequent droughts and floods attributable to climate shifts that have harmed plant cultures and harvests.
In the realm of politics, the United Kingdom's decision to leave the European Union in 2016 has catalyzed some of the worst tendencies in British politics. The decision has exhausted the country's political class, leaving it ill-prepared for the pandemic and the twin economic shocks of the war in Ukraine and the 49-day experimental premiership of Liz Truss.
In the retail sector, Whole Foods Market's in-house brand 365 offers thousands of lower-cost products, providing shoppers with value versions of everyday items. The company even launched a separate 365 chain in 2015, which was later converted to regular Whole Foods locations in 2019.
