Surging food inflation, decline in agriculTure growth rate and the impending food security bill are expected to be at the centre of the coming Union budget. With a bumper wheat harvest expected this rabi, there are projections of a Turnaround in the farm sector from the present growth rate of 0.2 per cent. Food prices, which grew at an unprecedented rate of nearly 20 per cent in January, are expected...

In a bold move that will not just prune the humongous fertiliser subsidy bill but also change the face of agriculTure, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, aided by several Cabinet colleagues, today brought in a nutrient-based subsidy (NBS) regime. This will incentivise companies to innovate beyond a handful of products sold in the market presently and offer farmers choice based on soil needs. This is expected to trim the subsidy bill...

Economic diversification is vital if the world's most poverty-stricken countries, some of them depending on a single or a few raw materials or commodities, are to escape their predicament, a top United Nations trade official said today. “Some countries had been successful in diversifying their economies, in creating jobs, in improving governance,” UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi told the opening session of a two-day meeting...

Anxious to ensure fiscal discipline and manage financial resources for its flagship programmes, UPA-2 is considering deletion of the Above Poverty Line (APL) beneficiaries from the ambit of the proposed food security law. It seems garnering money for UPA's pet promise of "food for all" is Turning out to be a big headache as a note circulated for the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) has argued in favour of mandating...

Commission pulls up Puri district Collector  The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has directed the Orissa government to register an FIR and act against persons, who illegally confined 17 persons in Puri district and extracted menial works from them under the pernicious custom of ‘bartan’, a manifestation of the bonded labour system. The Commission, which pulled up the district Collector, told the government to take action against the officials who failed...