With buffer stocks ahead of harvest being twice the norm, limiting wheat procurement in the coming season is a judicious option. It is time for a thorough overhaul of the foodgrains procurement and buffer stocking policy. With the rabi season harvest of grains — mainly wheat, followed by paddy — just days away, a major challenge will be finding appropriate storage space. As of March 1, the Food Corporation of India...

The Budget should be an instrument of economic discipline and a promoter of healthy social development. As it is, it is like a leaky tap; it cannot halt inflation without disciplining political skulduggery. March 21, 2011:   A lot has been written about the Budget, how it affects this or that industry or business, or how it will increase or decrease the GNP growth rate. Undoubtedly, all those factors are important. But...

With an aim to introduce the much-awaited Food Security Bill in the monsoon session (July-August) of Parliament, the food ministry has started parleys to bridge the gap between an expert panel appointed by the Prime Minister and the National Advisory Council (NAC). While it wants to ensure smooth supply of foodgrains to the target groups, the ministry, in an interaction with NAC on Wednesday, made it clear that it is equally...

Forty years ago Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan helped rescue the world from growing famine and a deepening gloom over the future of food supplies. Today, public policy projects itself as pro-farmer but it does it half-heartedly, complains Swaminathan. M S Swaminathan, member of the National Advisory Council and father of the Green Revolution says the government's allocation for agriculture is insignificant. Doesn't the Union Budget reflect a new focus on agriculture?...

Prof Abhijit Sen, member of the Planning Commission, discusses Budget provisions related to the agriculture sector in an interview with Rajesh Bhayani and Sanjeeb Mukherjee. Sen feels, futures trading in essentials commodities like wheat and rice should not be allowed. According to him, India should follow China in having an agency for procuring commodities from the global market. There seems to a renewed focus in this Budget on ancillary items of...