-Counterview.net Latest report on measuring poverty authored by a committee headed by former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor C Rangarajan, has found that as many as 11 major Indian states out of 20 have fewer percent of poor than Gujarat. Submitted to the Modi government as a plea to come up with a new poverty criterion that takes into account "public expenditure that is being incurred in areas like education,...

-The Business Standard C Rangarajan, former head of the former Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, answers questions on the latest official poverty estimate by a committee he'd chaired. Edited excerpts of a talk with Indivjal Dhasmana: * Your panel has suggested these poverty lines be delinked from social welfare schemes. What would be the exercise's relevance? Is it of only academic interest? Poverty ratios have already been delinked from various social programmes. The...

-The Telegraph The Congress today slammed the Centre for linking food inflation to increased incomes and changing diets and asked if it intended to scrap its predecessor's welfare schemes that had raised poor families' purchasing power. Ironically, Congress ministers used to cite similar reasons for the rising prices. But spokesperson Randeep Surjewala accused the government of "insulting" the people and said it was a matter of satisfaction and pride that incomes were...

-The Hindu Business Line     Facing criticism for rising prices, the Modi Government has blamed public expenditure on schemes such as MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) for fuelling food inflation. Curiously, the BJP wants the job scheme to continue, with the focus mainly on agriculture. According to the agenda note circulated for Friday's Conference of State Food Ministers with the Centre, food inflation is caused by both demand and supply...

-NDTV Hyderabad: The first month of monsoon has turned out to be the worst in years for farmers, especially in coastal Andhra Pradesh that has had very little rain because of a truant southwest monsoon. Hardly 30 per cent sowing has been done so far and with no rains, even that has dried up. consumers are bound to be left high and dry with food prices rising steeply. We met Kittappa,...