Ban forward trading of wheat and rice and undertake de-hoarding measures urgently Make higher budgetary allocations for Primary Health Centres which need to be strengthened Worst hit by the prices of essentials, women groups on Tuesday presented their wish-list for the budget to the Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.“The spiralling rise in prices of essential commodities and inflation have had a particularly adverse impact on women, and on families from the more...

The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government loves committees. Have problem, will deliberate, seems to be the government’s motto. So, it is not surprising that the chief ministers’ conference on price rise ended with yet another committee being appointed, this time on the overhaul of the public distribution system (PDS). This despite the fact that the recent surge in prices had nothing to do with the absence of a universal PDS...

The special meeting of Chief Ministers convened by the Centre indicates that food price inflation remains worrisome. But at the meet the problem was underplayed and little of substance emerged.  With food price inflation still running at close to 18 per cent, the UPA government at the Centre has been forced to recognise that it constitutes a problem that deserves as much or more attention than the objective of achieving...

With a large number of people living on subsistence level of income, the government has to safeguard their interest by ensuring availability of food grains at an affordable price. Success of any policy or programme to this effect depends on growth in agriculture production and procurement of wheat and rice, the main staple foodgrains. Though the performance of agriculture has not been uniform throughout and its growth rate has varied...

To the price-hit common man, food inflation easing from nearly 20 per cent to a little above 16 per cent is a statistical mirage. And the president's call for a "second Green Revolution" will seem talk in the air. Politicians, nonetheless, are battling each other instead of high prices. Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar has faced opposition snipers and the Congress's friendly fire. Tackling prices, he retorts, is the government's collective...