-Business Standard Plans to enhance buffer stock to 500,000 tonnes; Gujarat exempts importers from stock limit Even as retail prices of pulses continued to exceed Rs 200 a kg in some cities, the Centre stepped up its countrywide crackdown on hoarders and black marketers. The central government claims to have seized around 50,000 tonnes of pulses so far from 10 states, about 15,000 tonnes in the last few days alone. Officials say the...

-The Indian Express The current crackdown on the pulses trade may do more harm than good in the long run. The government has reasons to be concerned over spiralling Dal Prices — even more so when arhar at Rs 200 per kg has become a major campaign theme in the ongoing Bihar assembly elections. But that does not justify the kind of desperate measures it has resorted to. Not only have...

-The Indian Express Scapegoating ‘hoarders’ and ‘speculators’ for the spike in Dal Prices might have been effective in the 1960s. But today, it is only evidence of a rather sloppy conceptual policy framework. The pulse rate of a normal and healthy human body hovers between 60 and 100 beats per minute. There can be problems if it goes any higher — and a serious threat to life over 200 beats per...

-Hindustan Times The alleged lynching of a truck driver who was ferrying pulses by a mob recently in UP is a sad commentary about India’s inadequate price management systems. Wholesale prices, which plunged for the 11th straight month in September, could be masking a worrisome rise in food prices, leaving consumers to wonder why — even with declining inflation — their household budgets are spinning out of control. After onion, the prices...

-The Times of India PATNA: After beef and quota controversies, the issue of escalating pulse prices has taken centre stage in campaigning for the Bihar assembly election. While Union ministers Ram Vilas Paswan and Radha Mohan Singh have offered to bring down pulse prices by 50% within two days after NDA comes to power in the state, the Nitish Kumar government says the Centre is not serious about bringing down the prices...