Food inflation rose sharply to 6.19% in January from 4.58% in December, led by rising prices of most segments Livemint.com The union government on Wednesday sold 385,000 tonnes of wheat worth ₹901 crore in the open market, in the second round of a planned auction of three million tonnes it plans to offload from the central pool to counter rising prices of the key foodgrain. The move assumes significance as India’s retail inflation...

A coalition of civil society activits has criticized the Union Budget 2023-24 for reducing government spending on the social sector by a massive amount. The economic crisis induced by the Covid-19 pandemic was borne disproportionately by those at the bottom of the pyramid and in this context spending on social protection schemes such as the Public Distribution System, anganwadis, pensions and MGNREGA is especially important. But the Government of India has...

The World Food and Agriculture – Statistical Yearbook 2022, released in December 2022, provides its readers a plethora of useful statistics and data across the countries pertaining to agriculture and food security. The yearbook by Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) primarily covers four themes -- Economic Dimensions of Agriculture; Production, Trade and Prices of Commodities; Food Security and Nutrition; and Sustainability and Environmental Aspects of Agriculture.  While going through the report,...

-The Hindu Business Line World over rice production is likely to fall due to a combination of drought and floods Three developments over the past couple of months have put the global rice market in focus. First, the India curbed rice exports by banning shipments of fully broken rice and imposing a 20 per cent duty on white rice exports. Second, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar told the...

-Hindustan Times Retail inflation in November dipped below 6% for the first time in 11 months, beating analyst estimates, on the back of a sharp deceleration in food prices, especially of vegetables and edible oils, although a spike in Cereal prices is a matter of concern. New Delhi: Retail inflation in November dipped below 6% for the first time in 11 months, beating analyst estimates, on the back of a sharp deceleration...