-DNA The government's lack of focus on agriculture shows its lopsided priorities. In the coming months, about 1.5 crore farmers who quit agriculture in the past seven years, are likely to trudge back into the villages. In normal circumstances such a massive reverse migration - from the cities back to the villages - would have been a sign of inclusive growth. But economists are taking this U-turn as a sign of...

-Outlook Thane: As much as 1,94,502 metric tonnes of food grain worth crores of rupees was wasted in India due to various reasons between 2005 and March 2013. The Food Corporation of India (FCI) has given this information in reply to an RTI query sought by a city-based activist Om Prakash Sharma. He had filed an RTI query last month and sought information about the food grain wastage in India, which he got...

-The United Nations Global food prices declined for the first time in three months as lower prices for cereals, sugars, oils and meat outstripped gains in dairy values, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported today. The Rome-based agency said its Food Price Index averaged 203.4 points in January, which is 1.3 per cent below December and 4.4 per cent below January 2013. The Index measures monthly changes in international prices...

-The Business Standard The challenge to anti-inflation policy lies in better institutions and better evidence-based policy Our failure to rein in inflation has been costly. Economically, it has hurt growth. Poor and urban middle-class households have been affected the most. A combination of slowing growth and high inflation has weakened our macro-fundamentals: households fled financial savings, domestic and foreign investors lost confidence, and the rupee plunged. Politically, it has been a disaster. For...

-The Hindu     Huge quantities of stock being routinely seized from middle-men Hyderabad: How much of food grain supplied under the Public Distribution System (PDS) is actually being consumed by white-card holders? Does the scheme truly satisfy its beneficiaries? While the answers are elusive, the fact remains that large quantities of stock are being sold illegally. Statistics provided by the Vigilance & Enforcement (V&E) Department show that huge quantities of stock are routinely being...