Wholesale food inflation saw a sharp increase to 18.32 per cent for the week ended December 25, primarily due to a steep rise in onion prices. The inflation rate is a 23-week high, much above the expectations of analysts and policymakers. Food inflation, as measured by the wholesale price index (WPI), was at 14.44 per cent for the previous week ended December 18 and at 19.9 per cent in the corresponding...

Much to the discomfiture of the Centre and in a further jolt to the common man, food inflation zoomed to almost a year's high at 18.32 per cent for the week ended December 25, 2010, owing to a spurt in the prices of vegetables, onions and milk. The sudden spurt in the wholesale price index-based food inflation from 14.44 per cent a mere week ago — and more than double...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has shot down the Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council's recommendation that the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) workers be paid the minimum wages set by states. The prime minister, in his December 31 letter to the UPA chairperson, clarified that the wage rate fixed by the central government would be indexed to inflation but not linked to the Minimum Wage Act. The PM's letter says...

Food Price Index rose 14.44 per cent while the fuel price index climbed 11.63 per cent in the year to December 18, government data on Thursday showed. In the prior week, annual food and fuel inflation stood at 12.13 per cent and 10.74 per cent respectively. The primary articles price index was up 17.24 per cent in the latest week compared with an annual rise of 15.35 per cent a week earlier. The...

Food prices globally are rising to dangerous levels. There is talk of a coming crisis, like the ones that produced riots around the world in 2008 and 1974. Many of the ingredients of a disaster are present, but governments can stop the problem before it causes too much damage. A warning sign is the price of traded staples like wheat, corn and rice. Prices shot up in 2010, soaring 26...