Not so sweet

There was much speculation when the Indian Sugar Mills Association (Isma), which had been proactively sharing data on fortnightly domestic sugar production for years, didn’t release data for the first fortnight of March. The departure happened after Ram Vilas Paswan, Union minister for consumer affairs, food and public distribution, expressed unhappiness over the repeated downward revision in Isma output forecast and said the data was “misleading”. A year of lower production and Isma’s revised projections kept prices firm and has worried the government.