“Government callous to plight of people groaning under spiralling prices of food items” Nine political parties, including four Left parties, on Thursday announced a week-long nationwide agitation against price rise. The United Progressive Alliance government was callous to the plight of people groaning under spiralling prices of food items, they alleged. “We have decided to jointly conduct a week-long agitation against the price rise from February 3 to 9. During the...

There comes a moment in the life of a nation when small differences of opinion are responsible for missing a historic opportunity that the nation may come to regret forever. The regret is greater when realisation strikes later that what seemed like irreconcilable differences could have been easily bridged with a little foresight. We are in such a moment now. The Food Security Bill is a bold measure of historic importance...

The government is seriously considering minority foreign stake in food retail in the wake of the spurt in food prices. “FDI in (food) retail will lead to demand-driven farming and that can result in clusterised high-growth farming,” food processing minister Subodh Kant Sahay told the The Telegraph. Cabinet secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar is believed to have gone even further — reportedly endorsing a proposal of the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP)...

In India, people are upset about onions. Expensive cooking oil is causing hoarding in China, a practice banned by the government. Meanwhile, flour and bread are the main source of riots in Algeria and now Jordan. Worries over food prices are gathering pace and triggering alarm among politicians across the world. For there is nothing more likely to bring down a government than ignoring starving citizens, as Marie Antoinette found to...

After announcing food prices had reached record levels last week, the United Nation’s (UN) Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is now trying to play down concerns about shortages. The FAO’s representative for Asia and the Pacific region, Hiroyuki Konuma, admitted that food supply and demand were tight but said there were sufficient grain stocks to feed populations. Though certain foods such as sugar, meat, corn and soybeans are selling at a...