Food-price inflation in India, Asia’s third-largest economy, may accelerate in the second half as farmers are paying 20 percent more to grow crops, according to the commission that helps set minimum farm-product prices. “The cost of production is going up very fast,” Ashok Gulati, chairman of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, said in a telephone interview yesterday. “The labor cost has gone up dramatically in the past one year...

Blames FCI’s internal bureaucracy for resisting reforms Much to the dismay of several NGOs that want strengthening of the public distribution system (PDS) in India, the World Bank in its latest report has favoured cash transfers. “In the medium to long term, the report recommends offering households the option of a cash transfer while continuing food-based support for specific situations…,” the bank said in the report titled ‘Social Protection for a Changing...

-BBC   India's cabinet has approved a proposal for a survey to identify people living below the poverty line, which also redefines what constitutes poverty. It will classify the rural poor into "destitutes, manual scavengers and primitive tribal groups". Urban poor will be defined as those in vulnerable shelters, low-paid jobs and homes headed by women or children. The survey, to be conducted alongside a caste census later this year, will help identify those...

Stating that the radio was a vital medium for the dissemination of information among farmers, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar urged farmers to make the maximum utilisation of the collective radio station concept. He was speaking at the inauguration ceremony of two such radio stations launched in Barh and Birauli towns in Patna and Samastipur districts. Lauding the efforts of the State Agriculture Department in realising the concept, he said that the...

Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus resigned as managing director of Grameen Bank, the micro-credit network he pioneered, expressing the hope that it would retain its "independence and character". The government has rejected the demand by the bank's directors that Yunus be made the bank's chairman and has also turned down the argument of the bank being "independent", saying it is subject to the laws governing the banking sector. In his resignation letter made...