Food inflation, hovering in the double digits, may play spoilsport to India’s ability to continue its rapid economic growth. It is truly troubling that food still consumes half of the expenditure of the average Indian household. No wonder a sharp spike in onion prices has the potential to upset the political calculus of social stability. India’s biggest challenge still remains ensuring food and nutritional security to its masses. Notwithstanding the nation’s...

With an aim to introduce the much-awaited Food Security Bill in the monsoon session (July-August) of Parliament, the food ministry has started parleys to bridge the gap between an expert panel appointed by the Prime Minister and the National Advisory Council (NAC). While it wants to ensure smooth supply of foodgrains to the target groups, the ministry, in an interaction with NAC on Wednesday, made it clear that it is equally...

A section of Congress is set to back the demand of chief ministers of BJP and other Opposition-ruled states to reject the Seeds Bill, 2010, in its present form. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, spearheading the campaign against the bill, has told Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar that the bill, whose avowed purpose is to facilitate production and supply of seeds of quality, will put the peasantry...

Indian agriculture needs Rs 1,08,000 crore to fight climate change in the next five years to ensure food for all at a reasonable price by 2020. To prevent food catastrophe, the agriculture ministry has asked the funds for implementing National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture under the Prime Minister's National Action Plan on Climate Change. Over 60% of the money will be spent on developing new technologies, crop varieties and new practices...

Niyamat was brave. But Bhukhan wants to live. The brutal killing of MGNREGS crusader and Jean Drèze aide Niyamat Ansari has triggered an exodus from his native village of Jerua in Latehar’s Manika block. And alarmed co-worker Bhukhan Singh, whose house was also targeted on that fateful March 2 night, is leading this unnerved group. In fact, the horror isn’t just limited to Jerua, rural job scheme activists in several neighbouring villages...