-The Hindu The increasing cost of production and the increase in GST on cartons has triggered protests in Himachal Pradesh Apple growers in Himachal Pradesh are out on the streets some three decades after their last big agitation. The protests are not surprising; their anger has been simmering for a while. To understand the present crisis, it is crucial to understand the developments of the last few decades. In the 1970s and 1980s,...

Is India going to face inflation in cereal prices during the rest of the current financial year? Experts differ on this. An analysis by Nomura Global Economics and CEIC finds that a below normal monsoon does not always translate into high retail inflation in food. Similarly, an above normal southwest monsoon does not always bring down the rate of food inflation. However, some agricultural experts (please click here, here and...

-The Hindu Such a stand will dilute its core agenda of pushing for a permanent solution to public stockholding for food security One of the cardinal demands of India in the World Trade Organization (WTO) — and rightly so — has been to find a permanent solution to the issue of public stockholding (PSH) of food to protect India’s food security (PSH policy). India’s PSH policy is based on procuring food from...

-Financial Express The extent of asymmetry between the support extended by the developing and the developed countries was brought to the fore in an earlier paper jointed submitted by India, China and some others. India, along with 80-odd developing countries, has sought a revision of the over three-decade-old external reference prices of farm commodities that are used by the World Trade Organization (WTO) to calculate current domestic farm subsidies extended by developing...

-The Hindu Business Line Rather than cut fuel prices, encouraging farmers to step up cultivation of oilseeds and raising LPG subsidy and vegetables will ease food inflation  It is true that a reduction in the prices of petro products will result in a modest fall in the prices of various commodities. However, the reduction in petro prices will happen only when both Central and State governments forgo a substantial portion of the...