-IBN Burdwan: Burdwan may be the Rice Bowl of Bengal. However, its farmers are committing suicide. Here, rice is not a source of prosperity but of anguish. Spiralling debt has reportedly driven 16 farmers here to commit suicide in the past one year. Fifty-four-year-old Amiya Saha was one such farmer. The memories haunt his wife, but what hurts more is the continued government denials that something is amiss here. Says Jayanta Saha, a...

-The Business Standard MSP hikes will stoke food inflation The government’s new kharif pricing policy, suggesting a steep 16 to 53 per cent increase in the minimum support prices (MSPs) of various crops, is unlikely to fully satisfy farmers even as it will stoke food inflation and swell the food subsidy bill. Approval of the new prices by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) came on the day that inflation numbers...

RANWAN, India — In this north Indian village, workers recently dismantled stacks of burned and mildewed rice while flies swarmed nearby over spoiled wheat. Local residents said the rice crop had been sitting along the side of a highway for several years and was now being sent to a distillery to be turned into liquor. Just 180 miles to the south, in a slum on the outskirts of New Delhi, Leela...

Lack of knowledge, fear of political criticism are some of the reasons that are stopping FCI, according to experts What is stopping Food Corp. of India Ltd (FCI) from selling its ample wheat stocks in the open market and buying futures contracts to meet its distribution commitments in the months ahead? Or, for that matter, what is keeping the food procurement agency from selling grain futures internationally, knowing that a bumper crop...

The 28th of May, marked as “World Hunger Day,” has come and gone but for Pannu Bai Bhil, every day is hunger day. How does someone dealing with chronic hunger view a day marking her plight? Let those of us who overeat at least take stock of a hungry India pitted against bumper crops, number crunching, technologies for profit, markets, and growth rates. The solution for hunger lies in proper...