The class bias in government policy is clear in the decision to release a small amount of foodgrain in the open market to tackle inflation. MOST people would agree that there is a strong element of speculation underlying the current inflation and that forward trading contributes to it. Yet the government, though it has banned forward trading in certain commodities under public pressure, is curiously reluctant to see this point....

Higher food prices pose a major threat to the global economy and social stability but policymakers must not over-regulate commodity markets, a senior World Bank official said on Thursday. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, managing director at the Washington-based bank, said rising food prices are squeezing the poor and contributing to social instability. "Higher food prices and volatility are one of the biggest threats to the global economic recovery and social stability. You saw...

The government is seriously considering minority foreign stake in food retail in the wake of the spurt in food prices. “FDI in (food) retail will lead to demand-driven farming and that can result in clusterised high-growth farming,” food processing minister Subodh Kant Sahay told the The Telegraph. Cabinet secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar is believed to have gone even further — reportedly endorsing a proposal of the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP)...

After three days of hectic consultations with Cabinet colleagues and experts, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday set up an inter-ministerial group under the Chief Economic Adviser to the Finance Ministry to review the inflation situation with particular reference to primary food articles. It will also assess international tariff trends and recommend action on the fiscal, monetary, production, marketing, distribution and infrastructure fronts to prevent “price spikes.” As an immediate measure to...

The Central Information Commission (CIC), the final appellate authority for the Right to Information (RTI) Act, has asked the Planning Commission to include disclosure norms in all future public-private-partnership (PPP) projects undertaken by the Centre and the state governments. Chief Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra has written to Planning Commission deputy-chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia to incorporate disclosure norms, so that any project which has the participation of private firms and concessionaires come...