Availability of commodities to be augmented The Centre on Wednesday stepped up its efforts to rein in food inflation, which touched 18.32 per cent for the week ended December 25 last with onion price soaring to Rs. 60 a kg in retail. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who later held a closed-door meeting with Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia. Mr. Pawar...

Export of sugar, hike in Above Poverty Line price under Public Distribution System put on hold A meeting convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday to discuss inflation and ways to tackle it, particularly the zooming prices of onion, vegetables, fruits, eggs and milk, remained “inconclusive,” official sources said. The Ministers concerned will meet Dr. Singh again in a day or two to come up with measures to tackle food...

Onion hubs were raided across the country today and officials claimed prices tumbled Rs 5-10 as a result of the income-tax department’s action a day after the Centre urged states to counter hoarding. Calcutta’s Sealdah wholesale mart and Asansol were among the places in Bengal that saw the swoops. Similar action was seen in several towns in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Gujarat. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had written to...

The Food and Agricultural Organization said Wednesday that the world faces a "food price shock" after the agency's benchmark index of farm commodities prices shot up last month, exceeding the levels of the 2007-08 food crisis. The warning from the U.N. body comes as inflation is becoming an increasing economic and political challenge in developing countries, including China and India, and is starting to emerge as a potential problem in developed...

Organized retail of packed food and raw food reduces prices of food for urban citizens and pays farmers a better price for the agricultural produce. It eliminates middle men and decision making at every other level. This is not rocket science. However, politicians refuse to do away with the WWII public distribution system in order to retain power at the district level. Well, for one thing, the format of the...