Lags behind Bangladesh and Pakistan in assessment and updating data While the Centre is projecting a concern for the poor and the hungry through its proposed national Food Security Bill, it has not even updated data on under-nutrition and hunger in the last six years. This has prevented international bodies such as the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) from assessing the improvement, or lack of it, in India in terms of...

-Reuters Cotton farmer Ravindra Krishna Patil in Maharashtra should be feeling flush after strong monsoon rains and a good crop, but high costs have cast a pall over his preparations for the festive season. Instead of splashing out on gold jewellery, appliances or maybe even a car during the biggest shopping season of the year, 28-year-old Patil must count his rupees after costs of everything from fuel to labour soared while cotton...

In planning, pursuit of profit was not seen as being in the social interest in the post-Independence years, but now profit is the sole motive. FOR two decades now the Government of India has pursued a policy of accelerated liberalisation, dismantling controls, diluting regulations and making the state a facilitator of private investment. It is not that the presence of the state has diminished during this period, but that its role...

The basic problem with the Approach Paper, as with its predecessor, is that its theoretical paradigm is wrong. WHAT used to be said of the Bourbon kings of France applies equally to the Indian Planning Commission: “They learn nothing and they forget nothing.” The Approach Paper to the Twelfth Five-Year Plan gives one a sense of déjà vu. It is hardly any different from the Approach Paper to the previous Plan...

-PTI   Terming high global commodity prices a "grave threat", Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has called for developing countries to increase their investments in agriculture to improve crop productivity. "The recent commodity and food price rise and their volatility constitute a grave threat to economic growth and food security in our economies," Mukherjee said at a meeting of G-24 Finance Ministers here last evening. He took over as the new chairman of the group...