The recommendation of the National Advisory Council (NAC), that the proposed food security bill should include 75% of the population, is populist. The measure, if implemented, will entitle nearly 800 million people to some kind of subsidised food. It will drive a big hole in the budget, which finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has tried hard to rebuild after the spending excesses of 2007-09. This is not to say that the poor...

After months of public and internal debate, the National Advisory Council (NAC) — an organisation whose clout and significance derive from the fact that Sonia Gandhi chairs it — has put forth a set of recommendations for the National Food Security Act. The core recommendations are to provide legal entitlements to cereals for 75 per cent of India's population, that is, 90 per cent of the rural population and the...

Rice exporters from India are upbeat over the higher projections of basmati output and better prospects of exports. The loss of crop, in Philippines due to storms and in Thailand and Pakistan due to floods, is driving Indian exporters to speculate for better realisations this year. The satellite image procured by All India Rice Millers Association and Agriculture and Processed Food Products Exports Development Authority (APEDA) depict an increase in area under...

The three partners of the Left alliance will agitate for implementation of the recommendations of the D Bandopadyaya Commission on land reforms. Releasing the manifesto of the CPM here on Wednesday, its state secretary, Vijaykant Thakur, said that the Left alliance would also ask the government to bring in drastic land reforms on the pattern on Tripura, West Bengal and Kerala. He claimed, "In our manifesto, the Left parties have given alternative...

Shortage of godowns for storing the kharif paddy is turning out to be a major issue, as millers expressed their inability to procure the commodity in the absence of adequate storage space. Chief Minister K. Rosaiah has convened an all-party meeting on Monday to elicit their views on procurement-related issues and brief them about the Government's preparedness to meet the farmers' rabi requirements. PM to be briefed A delegation of Congress leaders is...