India's annual food inflation based on wholesale prices rose to 17.4% for the week ended January 16 from 16.81% the week before, according to official statistics released on Thursday. Essential items continued to rule firm, with potatoes dearer by 57.56% over the past 52 weeks, pulses up 46.87%, and vegetables costlier by 10.5%. But prices of onions declined 1.69%. The limited data on the wholesale index released by the commerce...

Despite progress on many fronts to improve global health, the world still faces persistent challenges, from insufficient funding and capacity to the resistance by many to make needed lifestyle changes, the head of the United Nations health agency warned today. “Persuading people to adopt healthy behaviours is one of the biggest challenges in public health,” UN World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Margaret Chan told the agency’s Executive Board at the...

Government sat on grain stocks while food prices shot up   In july 2008, when inflation rose to a 10-year high of 11 per cent and industry was hit by a range of factors, including economic recession, the Union government responded immediately. There were day-on-day monetary interventions. Since July 2009, inflation, as calculated by the prices poor consumers pay for their daily needs, has hovered around 11 per cent, again a 10-year...

New method finds India is 9 per cent poorer india is poorer than previously estimated. A revised estimation of poverty for 2004-05 using new methodology showed the number of people below the poverty line was 37.2 per cent and not 28.3 per cent, as estimated earlier. The new estimate took into account expenditure on food, basic health and education, unlike the earlier estimation based on per capita calorie consumption. The inclusions...

Without policy efforts to deal specifically with issues such as reduced incomes and unemployment, the global economic crisis will be far from over. FOR most economic commentators, 2010 begins on an optimistic note. Just a year ago, there was much gloom about the world economy. The worst financial crisis since the Great Depression had broken out in full fury; asset markets in the United States, Europe and then most developing...