-The Times of India KOLKATA: You must have been complaining about rise in prices across categories - food or non-food. What you have not realized is West Bengal has become one of the most expensive states in India. Consumer price indices for October this year, filed with the Parliament barely a fortnight back, shows that Bengal's figure is now the second highest. Consumer price indices (CPI) for the rural Bengal during October...

-The Times of India CUTTACK/BHUBANESWAR: Thousands of twin city dwellers on Friday made a beeline for shops to stock up on vegetables and dry food. The mad rush led to a steep rise in prices of chura (flattened rice ), potatoes and candles. Soon they vanished from the market. "I bought a kg of chura for Rs 28. In the evening the shopkeeper hiked the rate to Rs 45 a kg. I...

-The Business Standard Onion crisis is a reminder of the need for retail reform Onion prices in towns have begun, finally, to come down. That follows a fresh harvest of onions in Karnataka and Maharashtra. But the price rise could happen again - unless its causes are realistically ascertained, and the right lessons drawn. The crisis was generally believed to have been triggered by low production, high exports and rampant hoarding. However,...

-The Telegraph The Centre today submitted in the Supreme Court a "draft model rule" to restrict sale and purchase of acid in the country following the rising number of attacks on women by criminal elements and jilted lovers. Under the draft rules, the sale of acid will be restricted to industrial use, battery dealers, school/college chemical labs and hospitals. It will be obligatory for all buyers to furnish their photo identity and...

-The Hindu The current market prices are essentially over and above the actual cost of production - a difference that could run from 100 per cent to 5,600 per cent, depending upon various therapeutic categories In a liberalised market economy, do we need price controls on drugs? Policymakers and the pharmaceutical industry do not think so. They believe that price controls are an inefficient tool that distorts resource allocation, squeezes revenue, reduces...