-Business Standard Sensible suggestions from Shanta Kumar panel on food security The Shanta Kumar committee on food sector reforms has made a slew of recommendations - many of which, even if controversial, make sense. Apart from suggesting downsizing of the unwieldy, inefficient and corruption-ridden Food Corporation of India (FCI) by outsourcing many of its tasks to the states and other public- and private-sector bodies, the panel has laid out certain amendments to...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Prices of most food items have been inching up relentlessly through the past year despite several so-called reforms in management of food supply chains. While staples like wheat flour and rice have become marginally costlier, prices of pulses like masoor and arhar have soared by up to 30%. Barring a few exceptions, prices of vegetables and fruits have shot up by 20 to 50%, and...

-PTI Mumbai: Seasonal spurt in vegetable prices next month could partly reverse the benefits of low global oil prices reducing inflation and increasing disposable incomes, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) warned on Tuesday. "The sharp reduction in oil prices as well as in inflation is likely to increase personal disposable incomes and improve domestic demand conditions in the year ahead," the central bank said in its monetary policy document. Inflation, excluding food...

-The Financial Express Only 6% farmers have gained from selling wheat and paddy directly to any procurement agency and the diversion of grains from the public distribution system is close to 47%. Against this backdrop, the Shanta Kumar panel's report on reorienting the role and restructuring of Food Corporation of India (FCI) needs to be adopted by the government at the earliest and in totality. This will indeed make for huge...

-Down to Earth The situation of India's farmers has only become grimmer in the past decade, according to the latest National Sample Survey Office report The lot of the embattled Indian farmer only keeps on getting worse with the passage of time. In the last 10 years, the voluminous debt of Indian agricultural households has increased almost four-fold whereas their undersized monthly income from cultivation has increased three-fold. Even the number of...