Talking up growth

Agricultural growth is a worry this year owing to the sub-normal monsoon but Prime Minister Narendra Modi amusingly drew some hope for it from the speed with which the director general of Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) delivered a speech. The director general hurtled through an account of ICAR's achievements on the occasion of its foundation day. In his opening remarks, Modi, who was chief guest, said the the speech was similar to a super-fast train and hoped that Indian agriculture grows at the same speed.