"It is wrong to say that we will become a super cabinet. We are here to get the Indian bureaucracy to see reason to carry forward social projects related to areas like health, food, agriculture speedily and make sure that people like (Planning Commission deputy chairman) Montek Singh Ahluwalia gets the correct picture and figures on social issues," a member of the National Advisory Council told rediff.com. The member argued...

Kerala Food and Civil Supplies Minister C. Divakaran has come out strongly against the suggestion of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) that the Union government withdraw from grain procurement, storage and distribution under the Public Distribution System (PDS) and outsource these to private operators. FICCI makes the suggestion in a study report, which was released a few days ago. In a statement here on Monday, Mr. Divakaran...

Loss in food grains estimated at 16 million tonnes  Overall Kharif output can fall by 15 per cent Call for long-term strategy to tackle vagaries of monsoon Erratic monsoon this kharif could reduce the agricultural crop growth to -2 per cent year-on-year, down from an earlier estimate of 1.4 per cent, according to a Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) report released here. The report, “Drought in...

KEY TRENDS   • In 2017-18, 24.8 percent of rural working-age men and 74.5 percent of rural working-age (viz. 15-59 years) women were not employed. In urban areas, 25.8 percent of working-age men and 80.2 percent of working-age women were not employed AB   • Both the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) and the Consumer Pyramids Survey of the Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy (CMIE-CPDX) report the overall unemployment rate to be around 6 per cent in 2018,...