Tight money policy means more capital inflows: ADB Lower middle class worst affected by inflation Infrastructure development, farm productivity can help With the Wholesale Price Index (WPI)-based overall inflation still hovering at around 10 per cent, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Thursday said that it was likely to scale up its inflation forecast for India by the end of September. Speaking to the media after the launch of the ADB's flagship annual statistical...

It is not every day that we have more than 60 million tonnes of foodgrain in our granaries. It must be an achievement, considering we were living literally from ship to mouth even in the 1960s. Unfortunately, what could have been a matter of pride has turned out to be a national shame, that too the second time in this decade (the first was in 2001). As Karl Marx said,...

The 2010 Seeds Bill that has been introduced in Parliament does address some of the major concerns in the aborted 2004 version, but strangely a number of important correctives – on regulation, consistency and punishment – that had been incorporated in the 2008 version (which lapsed in 2009) have now been modified or dropped altogether. What forces are pushing the government to act against the interests of India’s farmers? The third...

The disastrous effect of the state throwing up its hands and retreating is most starkly visible in agriculture . Remember: agriculture involves 70 per cent of the country's population , generates about 56 per cent of national income, 64 per cent of total expenditure and about one third of total savings. So, any neglect translates into gigantic costs. And the central crisis in agriculture — production barely matching a depressed...

Independent India's greatest failing must be its inability to feed its people. With 42 per cent of all children malnourished, 56 per cent of women anaemic, and the country ranked 65th out of 84 countries on the Global Hunger Index, the report card of the state on nutrition must have an F. Most disturbing is the fact that things have got worse over time. In the first half of the...