-Reuters The finance minister is finding it harder and harder to meet the government's budget promises and may sweep as much as $15 billion in subsidy costs into next year's accounts to ensure he hits fiscal targets ahead of the Lok Sabha, ministry officials say. Finance minister, P Chidambaram, insists that the fiscal deficit target of 4.8% of GDP for the year to March 31, 2014, is a red line that will...
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Some good news: Farm sector likely to grow over 5%-Surojit Gupta & Sidharth
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Agricultural GDP is likely to grow by over 5% this year thanks to the most abundant rains in nearly two decades, a government thinktank has forecast. If the prediction turns out right, it could help tame food inflation, provide a much-needed boost to rural incomes and a knock-on effect on other sectors of the economy. The demand for two-wheelers, tractors and mobiles, in particular, could rise...
More »Food sector reform: Tackling the runaway food inflation train
-The Economic Times Nothing can be more ironic than to have food inflation at 18% (August 2013 over last August) in a country that takes pride in enacting the National Food Security Act (NFSA) and bestowing "the right to food" to 67% of its population by promising 5 kg cereals per capita per month (pcpm) at highly subsidised rates. Given that cereals consumption is 10.7 kg pcpm, people will have to face...
More »Doing a number on FSB-Ashok Kotwal, Milind Murugkar and Bharat Ramaswami
-The Financial Express In an article published in this newspaper on September 4, 2013, Surjit Bhalla takes us to task for critiquing his earlier estimates of the cost of the Food Security Bill. Bhalla asserted that subsidy expenditures would more than triple and the FSB would cost the government R3,14,000 crore annually or 3% of GDP. We argued that Bhalla was barking up the wrong tree and that the main things...
More »Dipa Sinha, a right to food campaigner interviewed by Elizabeth Roche
-Live Mint The right to food campaigner talks about the importance of the Bill in an interview The National Food Security Bill (NFSB) is just a signature away from becoming law after being passed by the Rajya Sabha on Monday. It was passed by the Lok Sabha on 26 August and needs the President's signature to be enacted. Critics have dismissed the proposed legislation as a drain on India's resources. Dipa Sinha,...
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