The huge expenditure on the food bill, with the attendant leakages, could well make fiscal recovery impossible In the first part of this article, we have estimated the actual cost of implementing the food security bill in its current form. In this part, we now examine the fiscal sustainability of the same. The current state of the revenue and expenditure trends of the Central government (refer table) show that while revenue...

-The Financial Express   Bhim can't understand what he's done wrong.   Before dawn every day he joins hundreds of wholesale traders at Delhi's Azadpur Mandi, a sprawling, chaotic market where trucks blare Bollywood music, porters haul huge brown sacks of fruit and vegetables and hawkers ply tea and cigarettes. His own trade is in rosy red apples, laced with calcium carbide. Bhim says he's been adding chemicals to his apples for years to artificially ripen...

Jharkhand’s milky way to good health is in serious jeopardy. All the 13 dairy samples collected from Ranchi last month have tested low on nutrients, corroborating a report collated by a central agency that suggested large-scale adulteration of milk. Though the state food controller has ruled out hazardous chemical contaminants, the veracity of his statement will be determined when the detailed laboratory report comes out on Monday. Alarmed by the Food safety...

-PTI The Central Information Commission has criticised the Union health ministry for its ambivalent replies to an RTI applicant who wanted to know what the government had done about declaring the level of trans-fats in food products. “If the Food safety and Standard Authority of India has taken no steps on specifying safety level trans-fats percentages in ghee and edible oil, they should at least admit this,” information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi said...

Multigrain noodles that claim to be healthier than the regular variety, digestive biscuits that help weight loss and drinks that make champions out of little children — cracking down on such advertisements, the Food safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has sent notices to the manufacturers asking them to justify the claims with appropriate evidence or face action for violating the advertising code for food items and supplements. Among those...