-The Business Standard   The new grain pricing policy for 2012-13 rabi marketing season seems a half-hearted attempt to make farmers grow more oilseeds and pulses, which are in short supply. This is apparent from a hefty hike of Rs 650 to Rs 700 a quintal, or around 35 per cent, in the minimum support prices (MSPs) of oilseeds and pulses and a relatively modest increase of Rs 115, or 10 per...

The word ‘hunger’ does not appear in the 12th Plan Approach Paper even once, whereas according to the latest Global Hunger Index Report, India continues to be in the category of those nations where hunger is ‘alarming’. What is worse, India is one of the three countries where the hunger index between 1996 and 2011 has gone up from 22.9 to 23.7, while 78 out of the 81 developing countries...

-PTI The government has decided to redraft the National Food Security Bill to keep an option open for supplying more than three kilograms of subsidised foodgrains to general households in case of increased output. "We have received public comments and views of state governments on the draft Food Bill. We have decided to make some changes while finalising the bill," Food Minister K V Thomas told PTI. In cases of general households' entitlement...

-The Hindu   The Union government on Tuesday announced an increase of Rs. 115 in the minimum support price (MSP) of wheat, which has been set at Rs. 1,285 a quintal for the 2012-13 rabi marketing season. The MSP for the previous year was Rs. 1,170 including a bonus of Rs. 50. Terming the increase a “Diwali bonanza to farmers,” Law Minister Salman Khursheed told journalists that the decision was taken at a...

-The Times of India   Ahead of elections in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, the government on Tuesday announced an increase of up to 39% in the support price for farm goods in what is being billed as a Diwali gift for farmers. But the move has raised fears of a further spike in food inflation, which crossed the 10% mark last week. While the smallest increase was in case of wheat, where the...