On the eve of the Union Budget on Sunday, thousands of farmers and hundreds of farm widows staged a strong protest at Pandharkawda in Yavatmal district by hanging effigies of union finance minister of finance Pranab Mukherjee and agriculture minister Sharad Pawar. The protesters wanted to draw attention of the government towards its 'anti-cotton farmer policies.' They demanded lifting of ban on cotton export, a bailout package for dying cotton...

The Economic Survey has been silent on the proposed National Food Security Bill and the projections of foodgrains needed to provide food security to citizens. The chapter on Agriculture and Food Management talks of supply-side constraints, the need to feed a growing population, the Procurement and off take of foodgrains, buffer stocks of foodgrains, food subsidy, the targeted public distribution system (TPDS), and the central issue price (CIP) of foodgrains, but...

By stubbornly overruling the National Advisory Council, the government risks defeating its purpose as a body that speaks for the poor and the disadvantaged. HAS the Manmohan Singh government begun to regard the National Advisory Council (NAC) as an adversary who should be undermined? Going by their exchanges on key issues such as food security, wages under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), and the implementation of the Scheduled Tribes...

Although finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had promised food security and inclusive growth in his budget speech last year, hunger continues to stalk over 300 million citizens of the country. India slipped to 67th place in the Global Hunger Index 2010 rankings of 122 countries prepared by International Food Policy Research Institute. An Oxford University report said that 410 million Indians live in poverty. While there may be nit-picking over the...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said the government is trying to introduce the proposed National Food Security Bill that seeks to provide a legal guarantee for cheaper foodgrains to the poor, in the Budget session of Parliament. "...we hope to bring to this session of Parliament the National Food Security Bill, which would give the people the right to food as the constitutional right," Singh told Rajya Sabha while replying...