It is official now that the poverty in India is much more than earlier estimated. The Suresh Tendulkar Committee report submitted this month (December 09) estimates poverty in India at over 37 per cent (2004-5) and not at 28 per cent as calculated earlier. With recent price rise in food items factored, the current level could be even higher (See the link of the report below). The Government of India had...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Total Matching Records found : 1272
Coping with rising foodgrain prices by VS Vyas
India needs to initiate a number of steps to manage the emerging situation. After three consecutive good years, agricultural production has faltered in the last two years. There was a fall in production to the tune of 1.6 per cent in 2008-2009 compared to the previous year. This year, again, agricultural production is likely to be down by 2 per cent or more. The deceleration in the growth of foodgrain...
More »Rallying against hunger by Chandni Mehta
In a year of sparse rains and spiralling food prices, with hundreds of districts being officially declared as drought-hit, a rally by activists in the capital demands a Food Entitlements Act. Perhaps the most vocal demands at the rally were those aimed at a complete revamp of the Public Distribution System (PDS), starting with universal — instead of targeted — coverage. Over 5,000 grassroots activists, agricultural workers, farmers, lawyers, doctors and...
More »A fair food deal for all by Arjun Sengupta
The Indian economy is picking up and should be able to expand at eight to nine per cent. It is high time that the government initiates a universal public distribution system covering at least the essential commodities. Incomes of the rich will go up and India will be a major player in the world when it revives. But the bulk of the population, about 70 per cent, will remain poor with...
More »Rates of reform
One of the standout features of the monetary stimulus in India has been the wide divergence between the RBI’s policy rates and the actual lending rates of banks — the latter haven’t fallen nearly as much as the RBI would have liked. On Wednesday, Governor Subbarao ticked Indian banks off for the stickiness and non-transparency in lending rates and urged them to get out of the mindset which has led...
More »
