The Hindu Editorial (Spiralling food prices) – June 30, 2023

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The Hindu Editorial (Spiralling food prices) – June 30, 2023:

spiral (verb) – increase, rise, surge, escalate.
build-up (noun) – increase, escalation, expansion.
underlying (adjective) – fundamental, basic, primary.
inflation (noun) – simply meaning “cost of living”; increase of price level of goods & services and vice versa decrease of currency value.
Inflationary/price pressures (noun) – the demand and supply-side pressures that can cause a rise in the general price level; cost-push inflation, hot-economy, deficit finance.
guard against (verb) – take care for, beware of, keep watch for, be alert to.
sustainable (adjective) – supportable, acceptable, trustworthy, reasonable, sensible, reliable, dependable, well-founded (without disturbing the balance of nature and then without exhausting all of the natural resources).
household (noun) – family, house.
find oneself (phrase) – to realize and accept what you are really like and what you want to do in life; accept one’s situation.
surge (noun) – sudden increase or rise of something.
staple (noun) – main item; important element (of something).
month-on-month (adjective) – used to compare data for one month with that in previous months.
Consumer Affairs Department (noun) – Department of Consumer Affairs is one of the two Departments under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution. It was constituted as a separate Department in June 1997 as it was considered necessary to have a separate Department to give a fillip to the nascent consumer movement in the country.
seemingly (adverb) – apparently, allegedly, ostensibly, supposedly, purportedly.
far more (phrase) – much more.
benign (adjective) – mild, favourable, agreeable; advantageous, beneficial, helpful.
trajectory (noun) – track/course, route, path, direction, approach.
price gain (noun) – a general increase in the price of something.
basket (noun) – a group of something (taxes, investments, commodities, etc.).
symptomatic (adjective) – indicative, warning, signalling, suggestive, symbolic.
unsettling (adjective) – upsetting, discomfiting, disconcerting, disturbing, disquieting, troubling.
climb (verb) – rise, ascend, progress, go up, move up (in a chart or table).
Retail or Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation (noun) – The change in the price index of the basket of consumer goods and services over a period of time is referred to as CPI-based inflation or retail inflation.
quicken (verb) – speed up, accelerate, step up, expedite.
basis point (BPS) (noun) – a unit of measure used in finance to describe the percentage change in the value or rate of a financial instrument. One basis point is equivalent to 0.01% (1/100th of a percent). Used for measuring change in interest rate/yield.
year-on-year (adjective) – year over year (for comparison).
imposition (noun) – levying, charging, collection.
so far (phrase) – thus far, yet, still, up till now, up to now, until now.
do little to reduce something (phrase) – fail to reduce something etc.
cool (verb) – reduce, lessen, diminish, decrease.
lentils (noun) – edible dry peas, beans and chickpeas & etc.
to be sure (phrase) – certainly.
seasonality (noun as modifier) – the fact of varying with the seasons.
produce (noun) – all agricultural products (as a whole).
largely (adverb) – mostly, mainly, generally.
harvest (noun) – production, produce, yield, year’s/season’s growth.
prevail (verb) – exist, be in existence, be present, be prevalent.
mandi (noun) – a big market.
crop (noun) – a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence.
dump (verb) – dispose of, throw away, throw out, discard.
sizeable (adjective) – significant, substantial, considerable, fairly large.
unremunerative (adjective) – futile, unprofitable, worthless/valueless.
substantially (adverb) – considerably, appreciably, significantly.
modal (adjective) – (in statistics) relating to a type of average value found by identifying the most frequently occurring item in the data set.
weighted average (noun) – a type of mean that gives differing importance to the values in a dataset (or) a calculation that considers the varying degrees of importance of the numbers in a data set.
Agmarknet website/portal (noun) – it is a govt. of India portal on agricultural marketing backed by a wide area information network connecting agricultural markets, State Marketing boards/Directorates and also providing linkages to the websites of the important National and International Organisations.
triple (verb) – increase by three (times).
quintal (noun) – a unit of weight equal to 100 kilograms.
jump (noun) – a sudden dramatic rise, increase; upsurge, upswing, escalation.
deficit (noun) – shortfall, deficiency, shortage, lack, failure.
outlook (noun) – prospects, chances, possibilities, expectations, future.
spatial (adjective) – relating to space; occupying space.
cloud (verb) – obscure, muddle, blur, make unclear, make uncertain.
uncertainty (noun) – unpredictability, unreliability, riskiness/precariousness.
El Nino (noun) – an unusual/abnormal warming of the waters across the central and eastern equatorial Pacific that lies closer to the Americas). La Niña means abnormal cooling.
accelerate (verb) – escalate, increase rapidly, heighten, intensify.
walk the talk (phrase) – to do the things you have said you would do.
laser focus (noun) – a very intense focus (of the human mind); a hyperfocus.
tame (verb) – control, curb, mitigate, moderate.
bulletin (noun) – statement, report, notification, message, advisory.
pave (verb) – facilitate, make easy, clear (the way for), create a situation to do something,
price stability (noun) – no (drastic) change in the price of goods and services in an economy over a period of time. It implies avoiding both prolonged inflation and deflation.