'Food subsidy is a massive burden…if so much is spent on subsidies, what is left for development?' agriculture minister Sharad Pawar recently asked. It is a legitimate question that is on the minds of many but seldom gets asked for fear of appearing callous. Are we prematurely trying to be a welfare State? In the developed world, safety nets like food stamps are regarded as humanitarian obligations toward the poor....
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Addressing India’s hunger gap by NC Saxena
The word ‘hunger’ does not appear in the 12th Plan Approach Paper even once, whereas according to the latest Global Hunger Index Report, India continues to be in the category of those nations where hunger is ‘alarming’. What is worse, India is one of the three countries where the hunger index between 1996 and 2011 has gone up from 22.9 to 23.7, while 78 out of the 81 developing countries...
More »Food Bill: Government may raise general quota if output improves
-PTI The government has decided to redraft the National Food Security Bill to keep an option open for supplying more than three kilograms of subsidised foodgrains to general households in case of increased output. "We have received public comments and views of state governments on the draft Food Bill. We have decided to make some changes while finalising the bill," Food Minister K V Thomas told PTI. In cases of general households' entitlement...
More »Rising wages feeding inflation, says Kaushik Basu
-The Economic Times Chief economic advisor Kaushik Basu has said that part of the blame for the sustained high inflation in India must go to rising wages. Basu believes that labour cost differences between the developed and labour-surplus countries such as India that have been in existence for a long time have now started narrowing which is feeding into higher prices within the country. "The reason for inflationary pressures in India is that...
More »Blame China for the stubborn and high Inflation by Smriti Seth
There is a China hand in India's inflation, one important reason why the steady rise in interest rates may not be cooling the high inflation. About 25% of imported inputs that go into manufacture of goods produced locally are imported from China. In addition, a third of consumer goods imported into India come from China. The inflation in goods exported by China was 10% in July, much higher than its overall...
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