-The Economic Times   India's food inflation eased to a four-month low in the week to 19 November as vegetables, Cereals and eggs turned cheaper. The decline in the reading for the fourth consecutive week came as a respite to the government struggling to recover from a string of recent bad tidings.  Data released by the commerce and industry ministry on Thursday showed the wholesale price index for food articles rose 8% year-on-year,...

An unprecedented economic growth during the last decade has also seen increasing malnutrition, hunger and starvation amongst certain sections of society. India ranks 66 in the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO’s) World Hunger Index of 88 countries (Inter-national Food Policy Research Institute). More than 200 million people in this country are denied the right to food. One-third of all underweight children (57 million) in the world due to lack of...

Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh today questioned the policy of providing free electricity to farmers in certain states, saying excessive pumping by cultivators had led to a depletion in groundwater levels. “In district after district, groundwater tables are falling. And there is no doubt that free electricity has caused excessive use of water. Our policies on pricing of water also do not lead to conservation. So we have to rethink on...

-The Economic Times   The UPA government - especially the Planning Commission - has been taken to task for fixing a poverty line at a level (Rs 32 per capita/day in urban areas) that does not even guarantee a bare subsistence. In the medley of scathing critiques and rebuttals, three strands of arguments seem dominant. One is that the poverty line is utterly unrealistic as a measure of subsistence requirements of food, health...

At BANCON (annual bankers' conference) 2011 in Chennai, financial institutions explored avenues for greater participation in agriculture and rural development. There are a few areas in need of additional attention and investment. Green Revolution technologies are scale-neutral but not resource-neutral. Inputs are needed for output; therefore market-purchased inputs become important in providing soil and plant healthcare for higher yields. Social scientists point out that small and marginal farmers will be excluded...