North Korea fires 200 artillery rounds at border region; South Korea issues evacuation orders Amidst rising tension, North Korea fired about 200 artillery rounds in the border region with South Korea, in response to a joint combat firing drill carried out by the United States and South Korea involving heavy weaponry recently. This joint drill was also an outcome of a recent statement by Kim Jong-Un, calling the U.S. actions “provocating for a nuclear war.” North Korea’s artillery firing around the disputed sea boundary violated the fragile 2018 inter-Korean military agreement, according to a report by the Associated Press. According to the report, South Korea also returned the artillery fires in the sea, but there was no response from the North Korean side. The South Korean island of Yeonpyeong, that lies just South of the maritime border with North Korea has been evacuated on the orders by the government in the wake of artillery fires carried out today morning by the North Korean army. According to Associated Press, “The Koreas’ poorly marked western sea boundary witnessed bloody naval clashes in 1999, 2002 and 2009. The North’s alleged torpedoing of a South Korean warship killed 46 South Korean sailors in March 2010, and the North’s artillery bombardment of Yeonpyeong Island — one of the five border islands where the evacuation order was issued on Friday — killed four South Koreans in November 2010. The 2018 agreement requires the two Koreas to halt live-fire exercises and aerial surveillance in buffer and no-fly zones that they established along their border.” Kim Jong-un prepares for war The North Korean media has reported that calls have been made to prepare for a military showdown against any provocation from the South Korean army. The media also shared images of Kim Jong-un with his daughter visiting the state facility of manufacturing missile carriers. Speculations are being made that Kim intends to mobilize these missiles across different parts of the country.
Retail inflation in milk was reported at 8.85% in May 2023. The milk inflation has remained elevated at over 6% since August 2022. Despite India being the largest milk producer since 1998, the commodity has been the second biggest factor after cereals such as rice and wheat in driving up retail inflation in the last fiscal.
Milk has the second highest weight in the food and beverages basket of the consumer price index at 6.61%, a notch lower than cereals and products with a 9.67% weight. Organised players, including Mother Dairy and Amul, hiked prices multiple times in the last one year citing higher fodder cost, robust demand and some impact due to reports of lumpy skin disease.
Industry sources said feed cost, which has a share of more than 65% in the cost of production of milk, has increased to Rs 20/kg from Rs 8 a year ago. The finance ministry in April had attributed the elevated milk inflation to a demand supply mismatch and said it could be one of the factors apart from volatile international crude oil prices and constrained supplies of milk would influence the country’s inflation trajectory.
“Milk production has been impacted by a lumpy skin disease infecting millions of cattle in late 2022,” the ministry said in the monthly economic review, adding that the vaccination drive against the disease is expected to curb the spread and immune the cattle against the skin disease.
According to official data, currently India is the world’s largest milk producer, and has a share of 23% in global milk production. For the first time in decades, the country’s milk production is likely to have stagnated in 2022-23 due to Lumpy Skin Disease in cattle across several states and the lagged effect of Covid-19 in the form of stunting of the animals, a senior official with department of animal husbandry and dairying recently had stated. The milk production was estimated at 221 million tonne in 2021-22.