The food subsidy bill for 2010-11 could shoot up by nearly Rs 25,000 crore to touch Rs 80,000 crore, putting further pressure on the government’s finances, a food ministry official said on Tuesday. The government has budgeted Rs 55,578 crore for the current fiscal. The sharp increase in the subsidy is because of higher minimum support price ( MSP )) for crops and the government holding food stock that are nearly three times...

Organized retail of packed food and raw food reduces prices of food for urban citizens and pays farmers a better price for the agricultural produce. It eliminates middle men and decision making at every other level. This is not rocket science. However, politicians refuse to do away with the WWII public distribution system in order to retain power at the district level. Well, for one thing, the format of the...

It is time for India's government to put its money where its mouth is. New Delhi has raised some $30 billion since March by selling state assets and telecom airwaves. That is about as much as the country will attract in foreign direct investment this fiscal year. There is one area above all else where this money should be directed: food security. New Delhi talks a lot about guaranteeing food for India's...

This allocation is in addition to 25 lakh tonnes of grains released for BPL population in August Ban on export of pulses and permission to import pulses at zero duty to continue till March 2012 The Centre on Tuesday announced an additional allocation of five million tonnes of wheat and rice to States for distribution to the Below Poverty Line (BPL) and Above Poverty Line (APL) beneficiaries through the Targeted Public Distribution...

If the price rise is due to production shortfall, how does one explain the near doubling of the price within a few days? The sharply rising onion prices have raised the suspicion that speculators are manipulating a shortage situation. First, a few facts. In retail markets, onion prices have soared from Rs 10-11 per kg in June to as high as Rs 70-80 on Dec 21. Even more significantly, prices zoomed by...