-The Economic Times   Chief economic advisor Kaushik Basu has said that part of the blame for the sustained high inflation in India must go to rising wages.  Basu believes that labour cost differences between the developed and labour-surplus countries such as India that have been in existence for a long time have now started narrowing which is feeding into higher prices within the country.  "The reason for inflationary pressures in India is that...

-The Economic Times   If food inflation seems to be pinching more, it is because vegetable prices barely decline in winters, milk rises through the year and egg prices remain high in summers - all because of rising demand.  Over the years, the seasonal variation in prices has dropped and consumers do not have the option of shifting to cheaper produce to keep daily costs down, says a recent Reserve Bank of India...

The Centre is likely to pay minimum wages to workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in compliance with the recent Karnataka High Court ruling upholding the supremacy of the Minimum Wages Act (MWA) over the MGNREGA. Union Minister of Rural Development Jairam Ramesh has taken a decision favouring payment of minimum wages for agricultural workers as notified by the States as MGNREGA wages. He told The...

There is a China hand in India's inflation, one important reason why the steady rise in interest rates may not be cooling the high inflation. About 25% of imported inputs that go into manufacture of goods produced locally are imported from China. In addition, a third of consumer goods imported into India come from China. The inflation in goods exported by China was 10% in July, much higher than its overall...

-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...