-Frontline Professor Sukhpal Singh, a faculty member of the Centre for Management of Agriculture at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, has been researching and documenting the process of contract farming and Food Supply Chains in India for more than a decade. He is of the view that the small farmer is being excluded in the method currently in place, which defeats the very purpose of improving Indian agriculture. Sukhpal Singh,...

-IPS News ROME: The growing consensus, momentum and commitment to eradicate world hunger may seem overly ambitious in view of the slow progress in reducing the number of hungry people in the world in recent decades. After all, declining food prices in the second half of the 20th century, thanks to increasing production, were not enough to eliminate poverty and hunger in the world. In the 1960s and 1970s, many governments invested a...

-PTI Drug regulator DGCI is conducting a "focussed scrutiny" of medicines sold by Ranbaxy and some other drug makers, but says it remains confident of the quality standards of Indian medicines despite concerns raised by US authorities over some of Ranbaxy's products. While the company continues to assert that its drugs meet all regulatory standards, a few hospitals and pharmacies have adopted a cautious stand on use of its products. However, a majority...

-The Times of India Direct transfer of benefits in cash to targeted beneficiaries of food and fertilizer subsidies could save an estimated Rs 60,000 cr and help trim the fiscal deficit which, in turn, may calm stubbornly high food inflation, a study by a government wing has shown. The study showed that policies to rein in food inflation would require winding down of the fiscal deficit, which has gone above 8% of...

-The Times of India Why isn't aam admi smiling? The question's relevant, since some cheer's apparent in government circles over wholesale price index-based inflation falling to 6.62% in January. Headline inflation, it's said, will drop further by March-end. To common people, the WPI inflation figure's a meaningless number. If WPI inflation's dipped a fourth successive month, food prices have been riding high for far longer. Policymakers periodically recommend release of foodgrains from...