The first consignment of about 200 tonnes of onion imported by the government from Pakistan landed at the Mundra port in Gujarat today and is likely to reach Delhi on Tuesday. The government had asked state-owned trading agencies PEC and State Trading Corporation (STC) to import onion to boost domestic supply and rein in the soaring prices of the kitchen staple. Since Pakistan had banned trade of onion to India through land...

There is a new “plan” for the scheduled tribes, but the adivasis themselves will have no say. Alienation from the forest and its resources, alienation from cultivable land and alienation from the State underlie the anger of the adivasis in India’s heartland. This is not a new or startling observation. Adivasi mass organisations, the more sensitive administrators, political organisations with their ears to the ground and scholars who have studied India’s...

Export of sugar, hike in Above Poverty Line price under Public Distribution System put on hold A meeting convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday to discuss inflation and ways to tackle it, particularly the zooming prices of onion, vegetables, fruits, eggs and milk, remained “inconclusive,” official sources said. The Ministers concerned will meet Dr. Singh again in a day or two to come up with measures to tackle food...

So why is the UPA hell-bent on killing its unique success story: the NREGA? Here's the inside narrative of the conspiracy. It took 47 days of a protest sit-in at Jaipur to make the state budge(1). It's notable that the objective of this protracted protest was not to coerce the Rajasthan government for an extra share of the state's resources, but to hold the government accountable to the Constitution and its...

Right to Food Campaign demands a universal PDS “It is a dishonest proposal of the government” The Right of Food Campaign has charged the Central government with lack of commitment in providing food and nutrition security to citizens with its reported decision to revise the issue prices of wheat and rice for the Above Poverty Line (APL) category of beneficiaries in the Public Distribution System (PDS). “This is the first step to finish...