To banish hunger and malnutrition from the country, Parliament is likely to pass the National Food Security Bill (NFSB). In our earlier article on this issue, Can we Afford Rs 6-Lakh-Cr Food Subsidy Bill in 3 Yrs? (ET, December 17, 2011), we concentrated on the likely financial implication that we estimated at roughly Rs 6,00,000 crore over a period of three years. In this piece, we address the operational challenges...
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CCI gives clean chit to sugar companies for cartelisation, price manipulation by Maulik Vyas
India's competition regulator Competition Commission of India has absolved sugar manufacturing associations and their members of cartelisation and price manipulation charges. Earlier, the competition regulator had sent a notice to sugar mills associations and their members charging them of cartelisation and price manipulation. The suo motu action charged Indian Sugar Mills Association (Isma), National Sugar Mills Co-operative Federation, and some private sugar firms of cartel violation. However, the sugar associations and companies...
More »The glory and the blemishes of the Indian news media by Amartya Sen
One of the great achievements of India is our free and vibrant press. This is an accomplishment of direct relevance to the working of democracy. Authoritarianism flourishes not only by stifling opposition, but also by systematically suppressing information. The survival and flowering of Indian democracy owes a great deal to the freedom and vigour of our press. There are so many occasions when, sitting even in Europe or in America,...
More »Drought caused kharif damage in 85.6 lakh acres by B Chandrashekhar
About 51.54 lakh ryots lost investments Farmers in the State have suffered crop damage in a whopping 85.6 lakh acres during the 2011 kharif season, 44 per cent of the total 1,94,65,000 acres area cultivated. About 51.54 lakh farmers, including 48.33 lakh small and marginal ones, have lost the investment almost completely. In a report submitted to the State government recently, the Department of Agriculture has put the requirement of input subsidy, compensation...
More »The sorrow of Majuli by Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty
River Brahmaputra has eaten more than half of Asia's largest riverine island Majuli over the last 60 years. With land disappearing, there is progressive loss of the traditional means of livelihood of its people, leading to their displacement. Some lately are migrating even as far away as Andhra Pradesh, finds out Sangeeta Barooah Pisharoty after a visit. Farmer Sridhar Bora stops mid-way as he brings down his axe on a tree...
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