-The Times of India Spiralling prices of vegetables, oils and fats, milk and milk products pushed consumer price inflation to double digits in April in yet another hurdle to the Reserve Bank of India's efforts to ease interest rates. The double digit retail inflation rate also poses fresh challenges for the UPA government which has been on the back foot for its handling of the economy. Data released by the Central Statistics Office...

The UPA II’s third anniversary on May 22 may witness a repackaging of old schemes, promises and achievements in the “Report to the people” as the government has little to show for 2011-12. Sources say the 13-chapter report struggles to contest the perception of policy paralysis by pointing out social-sector initiatives based primarily on welfare schemes launched during the UPA I regime or in the first year of UPA II. The government...

-The Times of India Food Corporation of India (FCI) has warned that unless the government can distribute 750 lakh tonnes of food grain, there will be no storage space for the bumper harvest being currently procured, the food ministry told Rajya Sabha on Monday. The crisis of plenty has been engaging the government for a while as it is under pressure to distribute food grain to the poor or intervene in some...

-The Times of India Get ready to pay more for fuels shortly. The hike is likely to kick in soon after Parliament's budget session ends on May 22. In a clear indication of the inevitable, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday warned of "disastrous consequences" if "corrective steps" were not taken to deal with the problem of high oil prices and seemingly endless subsidy.  "Petroleum prices are increasing by leaps and bounds....

A universal pension scheme for social protection must be part of a broader strategy of economic expansion different from the present neoliberal order. INDIA must be one of the worst countries in the world in terms of not providing even minimal social security for most of its people. This is not just a major failure of the development project in the country – it is also a significant cause of...