This allocation is in addition to 25 lakh tonnes of grains released for BPL population in August Ban on export of pulses and permission to import pulses at zero duty to continue till March 2012 The Centre on Tuesday announced an additional allocation of five million tonnes of wheat and rice to States for distribution to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) and Above Poverty Line (APL) beneficiaries through the Targeted Public Distribution...
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Govt extends export ban on pulses
India, the world’s biggest producer and consumer of pulses, has extended ban on pulses exports until further orders, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said on Tuesday, as it battles to rein in high food prices. The government had in June 2006 banned exports of pulses, which has a weight of 0.72 per cent in the wholesale price index. India’s food price index rose 12.13 per cent in the year to December 11, government...
More »Tribals starving in Mizoram, claims NGO
Over 4,000 Chakma tribal people in Mizoram have been starving for the past few weeks, a non-governmental organisation said Thursday. "Over 800 Chakma tribal families comprising over 4,000 men, women and children in four villages in Chakma Autonomous District Council (CADC) areas of southern Mizoram have been starving for several weeks," New Delhi based Mizoram Chakma Development Forum (MCDF) said in a letter to the Mizoram government. MCDF president Hemanta Larma said:...
More »Decline and fall of Indian poverty by Surjit S Bhalla
In this winter of gloom, doom and corruption, the government can bask in some warmth from data collected by its statistical agencies. (Alas, these agencies have yet to hire some basic data-processing capabilities from minor computer firms, let alone agencies like Infosys. Perhaps Nandan Nilekani can loan some programmers from the UID project.) So what is the issue, and what is the evidence?It was only a few months ago that...
More »Maharashtra—chronicle of a death foretold? by Ranjona Banerji
Over the past two decades, Maharashtra’s leaders and caretakers have carefully steered it from being India’s most progressive and forward-looking state to lying on the verge of becoming one of India’s most backward.This is no mean achievement. Mumbai, as is well known, contributes close to 40% of the nation’s direct taxes. In 2003-2004, Maharashtra’s net state domestic product was second only to Haryana’s and the gross domestic product was 13%...
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