The government is seriously considering minority foreign stake in food retail in the wake of the spurt in food prices. “FDI in (food) retail will lead to demand-driven farming and that can result in clusterised high-growth farming,” food processing minister Subodh Kant Sahay told the The Telegraph. Cabinet secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar is believed to have gone even further — reportedly endorsing a proposal of the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP)...

Even as the price of onions remained high in domestic retail markets, the National Cooperative Consumers Federation of India (NCCF) on Monday urged the government to suspend the import of the vegetable for 10 days, by when the prices are expected to fall due to better arrivals. “The recent import of onions from China and Pakistan has created panic among our farmers, and many of them have started harvesting the crop...

The problem is all pervasive as the prices of almost all food items have been rising In a scenario that is all familiar in India and for that matter in many other countries too, rising food prices have become an extremely sensitive issue with major political and social ramifications that go well beyond the economic ones. Not that the economic consequences are unimportant. From the macroeconomic management point of view, rising food...

Three days after arrival of 200 tonnes of onions from Pakistan, an additional 426 tonnes of the vegetable has also landed at Mundra port in Gujarat from the neighbouring country to boost domestic supply. "Second consignment of 426 tonnes of onions imported by the Indian government from Pakistan landed at the Mundra port yesterday (Sunday)," official sources said on Monday. "After the two consignments, rest 374 tonnes of the contracted onions...

After announcing food prices had reached record levels last week, the United Nation’s (UN) Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is now trying to play down concerns about shortages. The FAO’s representative for Asia and the Pacific region, Hiroyuki Konuma, admitted that food supply and demand were tight but said there were sufficient grain stocks to feed populations. Though certain foods such as sugar, meat, corn and soybeans are selling at a...