-The Business Standard Making the agriculture growth story sustainable Finance Minister P Chidambaram's claim in his interim Budget speech of "stellar performance" of the agriculture sector is based on numbers, though it needs to be analysed from different perspectives to get a true picture. There is no doubt that agricultural gross domestic product may grow by 4.6 per cent this year. The past 10 years' average, too, may work out close to...

-The Business Standard The challenge to anti-inflation policy lies in better institutions and better evidence-based policy Our failure to rein in inflation has been costly. Economically, it has hurt growth. Poor and urban middle-class households have been affected the most. A combination of slowing growth and high inflation has weakened our macro-fundamentals: households fled financial savings, domestic and foreign investors lost confidence, and the rupee plunged. Politically, it has been a disaster. For...

-The Business Standard The only way to fix food inflation Both the inflation figures for November and current market reports indicate that the contours of food inflation have changed tangibly of late. While the prices of pulses, Edible Oils and sugar have tended to either moderate or decline, those of staple cereals, notably rice and wheat, and of perishable items, chiefly vegetables and fruits, continue to propel food inflation higher. The blame...

-The Indian Express Food inflation owes largely to agricultural markets being regulated by outdated laws. The RBI governor, Raghuram Rajan, has a difficult task this week. He has to decide whether to keep interest rates constant or raise them - bearing in mind the possible taper of the US Fed's bond buying programme, a decline in industrial production and a rise in inflation. The sharp increase in consumer price-based inflation, to more...

-PTI MUMBAI: Prices of pulses are expected to remain low in the next few months following good monsoons, high acreage, lower hikes in minimum support price and moderate demand, according to a report by rating agency Crisil. "Pulses inflation is likely to stay low over the next few months thanks to good monsoons, higher acreage, lower hikes in minimum support prices and moderate demand," the CrisilBSE -0.74 % report said. Food inflation in...