1. Silver mutual fund schemes and exchange-traded funds will see a short supply of the white metal with the government imposing curbs on imports.
2. Net investments in physically-backed gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs) turned positive last week after three weeks of continuous outflows, data from the World Gold Council (WGC) showed.
3. Plans are afoot in India to set up a Basmati development board on the lines of various commodity boards that function under the Commerce Ministry. The move comes on the heels of two rice exporter associations urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Affairs and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah to set up a dedicated statutory Basmati rice board. Indian scientists have created the first AI gene editor for crops. Pineapple growers in Keralam are suggesting a one-year pause on new crop.
4. In a breakthrough that could redefine crop biotechnology, scientists at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research’s Central Rice Research Institute have developed and experimentally validated the world’s first AI-designed genome-editing tool for plants, marking a major advance beyond the existing CRISPR systems that depend on naturally occurring microbial proteins.
5. The Pineapple Growers Association Keralam has launched a campaign urging farmers to avoid fresh pineapple cultivation for the next 12 months and instead focus on maintaining existing farms amid acute labour shortages and falling prices.
Published on May 24, 2026