Daily Briefing Current Affairs

When the Fuel Tank Competes With the Sugar Bowl

With sugar retail prices up sharply ahead of the festive season and 2025-26 production revised down to 30.6 MT due to red rot and pest damage, economists are questioning whether India's rapid ethanol blending expansion - now diverting food-grade feedstock during a genuine shortfall - has been allowed to compete directly with food affordability without an honest reckoning of that trade-off.