The Union budget estimates the nominal rate of growth for the Indian economy to be 12.5 per cent during the current fiscal. While it is impossible to figure out the manner in which this number was arrived at, the government has predicted further that the inflation-adjusted real growth rate for the same year will be eight per cent. Simple arithmetic requires that the difference between the nominal and real growth...

India’s annual monsoon rains should revive in two days after a 10-day lull, the weather office said on Monday, raising hopes for a pick-up in soybean planting in the world’s biggest edible oils buyer. The June-September rainfall, which irrigates 60% of the country’s farms and drives rural incomes, is vital for the trillion-dollar economy. A healthy rainfall despite the slow progress could help Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tame high double-digit food...

The National Advisory Council (NAC), headed by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, will consider ways to boost Indian agriculture as part of its drive to review the draft food security bill on July 1. “The NAC will address the sorry state of Indian agriculture, which recorded negative (-2 per cent) growth in 2010, and try to find ways to boost it in the long term,” said an NAC member. “The idea is...

India’s annual monsoon rains, key to farm output and economic growth, are expected to be better than previously forecast, raising prospects of good harvests and possibly helping to cool double digit food inflation. The monsoon rains, which deliver 75-90% of the country’s rainfall, were expected at 102% of the long-term average, government officials said on Friday, raising an earlier forecast of 98%. Bountiful rains despite slow progress of the June-September monsoon will...

At a time the country is facing high food inflation, its bread basket is sitting on colossal wheat stocks. The stocks, to the tune of 12 million tonnes, lying in godowns and open spaces in Punjab are giving sleepless nights to the Food Corporation of India (FCI). About 800,000 tonnes wheat moves out of Punjab in a month. Based on these figures, the state can clear about five million tonnes wheat...