The Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council is getting ready with its version of what the proposed land acquisition law and the accompanying rehabilitation and resettlement law should be. The bills are scheduled to be introduced in the winter session of Parliament after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s assurance to Rahul Gandhi. A note drafted by advisory council member N.C. Saxena, which was handed over to panel members when they last met in August,...

A common incidence of rotting food grains has been reported in India and the Philippines even as millions are starving. The problem has to be tackled with dexterity at both the domestic and regional levels to curb this alarming wastage of food that contributes to food insecurity at large. RECENT NEWS reports from the Philippines and India interestingly surfaced with one common problem -- rotting food grains in both countries, even...

Concerned over the huge mismatch between the Central estimate of 6.5 crores below poverty line families and the 11 crores BPL cards issued by the states under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), the food ministry has warned all the bogus card holders to surrender them or face criminal prosecution. The warning has been issued following the Supreme Court’s directive on August 31 asking the government to reform the TPDS and...

Most discussions on the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) have focused on one of few things, the leakages in the implementation of the scheme, the inadequate number of jobs created, and some even talk of how NREGA has resulted in food inflation going up in various districts as well as increasing mechanisation due to unavailability of farm labour. It is, of course, true that you can’t have food inflation...

“If countries impose export ban, import duty, there will be an inflationary trend” The outlook for global wheat production is still positive Restrictions can cause inflationary trend on food prices in 2011 and 2012 The drought in Russia and the floods in Pakistan that have affected wheat production will impact food prices as in 2007-08, says a senior official of the World Food Programme. WFP Deputy Executive Director Ramiro Lopes da Silva says: “The...