These days, Jhum cultivation also known as ‘slash and burn method of cultivation’, ‘shifting cultivation’ etc has been under continuous scanner for its productivity and ecological viability. This form of cultivation is followed widely in almost all the North Eastern States including the hill areas of Manipur. There are those who consider jhum cultivation as unproductive and ecologically disastrous so that people (understood as tribal people of the hill areas)...

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday asked States to consider waiving mandi taxes, octroi and local taxes for taming inflation, which affected the poor “harder” and posed a serious threat to the country's growth momentum. He said much of the responsibility for checking price rise lay with the States. “Much of what needs to be done... lies in the domain of State governments... There seems to be a strong case for waiving...

The promise made by UPA II that it will ensure food security for Indians through legislation that guarantees the Right to Food seems, in its view, to have been an error. In a multi-stage process that reflects the pulls and pressures within the policy-making elite, the Food Security Bill has been diluted so much that it marks a reversal rather than an advance compared to the status quo. Let us...

India's food prices are likely to ease, bringing down food inflation from stubbornly high levels, over the next two months as supplies of onions and other vegetables are expected to pick up, industry officials said Thursday. The country's food inflation rate surged to more than 18% in December as vegetable prices, particularly those of onions, spiked after unseasonal rain damaged crops. India's food inflation rate has slightly eased since then, but...

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) today cautioned on rampant speculations in the global commodity markets which is fuelling unprecedented price hikes around the world, with worst effects on poor countries such as India. "Financial speculation in global commodities trade is a source for concern as it contributed to steep price hikes," UNCTAD's Secretary General Supachai Panitchpakdi said on the sidelines of a special meeting convened by UNCTAD...