Availability of commodities to be augmented The Centre on Wednesday stepped up its efforts to rein in food inflation, which touched 18.32 per cent for the week ended December 25 last with onion price soaring to Rs. 60 a kg in retail. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who later held a closed-door meeting with Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia. Mr. Pawar...

The Supreme Court has paved the way for start of trial in the Palmolein Oil import scam. CVC J Thomas is an accused in the case. The apex court disposed the petition filed by K Karunakaran after his death. With this the interim order staying the trial also becomes ineffective. K Karunakaran, who was four times chief minister of Kerala, died in December last year. The case relates to the alleged loss of...

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has held a cabinet meeting to tackle spiralling food prices. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Home Minister P Chidambaram and Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar were among those at the talks in Delhi. The soaring price of vegetables, milk and other eatables in the past month have taken food inflation to 18.32% - the highest in more than a year. The agriculture minister has said the crisis is...

Export of sugar, hike in Above Poverty Line price under Public Distribution System put on hold A meeting convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday to discuss inflation and ways to tackle it, particularly the zooming prices of onion, vegetables, fruits, eggs and milk, remained “inconclusive,” official sources said. The Ministers concerned will meet Dr. Singh again in a day or two to come up with measures to tackle food...

Government’s food subsidy bill is expected to swell to around Rs 81,000 crore in the current financial year, up from the Budget estimate of around Rs 68,000 crore for 2010-11 because of higher cost of procurement of wheat and rice and increased allocations to below poverty line and above poverty line families in the current financial year, official sources said. The 19% estimated increase in food subsidy also includes those part...