Hit by soaring food inflation, the government moved into urgent damage control mode on Wednesday, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stepping into the frame and deciding to meet chief ministers to urge stronger anti-hoarding measures and improved lifting and distribution of foodgrains. The Centre plans to quickly release 2-3 million tonnes of wheat and rice in the retail market, using its own agencies like NAFED and NCCF besides PDS outlets....

Patna-based Central potato Research Institute (CPRI) has developed three varieties of potato as a New Year gift for farmers and potato consumers who were hit by the rise in the price of the commodity last year. The CPRI scientists have named the new varieties as kufary suya, pushkar and khyati. These offer better productivity and will be richer in protein and iron. They will have the average level of sugar. The principal...

Amid rising food prices hitting the household budget, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday said he has no "instant solution" to the problem. "Unlike instant coffee, there is no instant solution to such vexed problem as inflation," he told reporters when asked about the steps being taken by the government to check food inflation which almost touched 20 per cent during the third week of December. Discounting the possibility of...

After easing a bit in the previous week, food inflation was back to near-20% levels in the third week of December as items such as potatoes and pulses continued to belie hopes of sustained relief over prices of essential commodities. The wholesale price-based index of food articles rose by 1.18% for the week ended December 19 from 18.65% a week ago. One week before that, food inflation had stood at...

India achieved the distinction of being the second fastest growing economy amid the global recession in 2009, but the joy was marred by the decade’s sharpest rise in food prices to the chagrin of common man. For a country that continued to lose on its exports throughout the year that has gone by, economy achieved a remarkable growth of about 7% (during April- September 2009) on the back of focused government...