In December 2011, CAG tabled a well-analysed audit report in Parliament claiming a loss of 1,200 crore, or $250 million, on the import of subsidised pulses through 2006-11 under the supervision of department of consumer affairs (DCA) of the food ministry. The government's intention to introduce such a scheme cannot be faulted: during 2005-08, seven million tonnes of wheat was imported at high prices, chana (chickpeas) values spiked from 21...
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Near-record wheat production expected this year
-FAO FAO today forecast that 2012 world wheat production will be the second highest on record at 690 million tonnes and also announced that international food prices rose one percent in February — the second increase in two months. Published today, FAO’s quarterly Crop Prospects and Food Situation report forecast a 2012 wheat crop 10 million tonnes or 1.4 percent down from the record 2011 harvest but still well above the average...
More »No Guarantee of Food Security in Children’s Incredible India by Razia Ismail
India’s decision-makers seem to find it difficult to see that there are children in the country. Being unable to see them, they are unable to perceive that they are hungry. In an age when we are able to use euphemisms like ‘under-nutrition’, this is perhaps not surprising. But it is disgraceful none the less. This country has a large population of children. Fortyone per cent of its total numbers. The national...
More »Dr Abhijit Sen, Member-Planning Commission of India, interviewed by Ajay Vir Jakhar and Paranjoy Guha Thakurta
Dr Abhijit Sen is Member, Planning Commission of India. He is a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Cambridge (currently on leave as Professor of Economics at the Jawaharlal Nehru University) and has also taught at the Universities of Sussex, Oxford and Cambridge. Besides serving various think tanks in the states and at the centre, Dr Sen has been a consultant with UNDP, ILO, FAO and various other multilateral...
More »Balanced diet
-The Business Standard Govt policy is warping farm output mix The crop output estimates for 2011-12 put out by Krishi Bhawan last week – even while projecting a record foodgrain output that would cross the 250 million-tonne mark for the first time – reveal some worrisome inter-commodity imbalances as well. The harvests of wheat and rice – both of which are facing the prospect of a glut with the official grain coffers...
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