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...

Prof Abhijit Sen, member of the Planning Commission, discusses Budget provisions related to the agriculture sector in an interview with Rajesh Bhayani and Sanjeeb Mukherjee. Sen feels, futures trading in essentials commodities like wheat and rice should not be allowed. According to him, India should follow China in having an agency for procuring commodities from the global market. There seems to a renewed focus in this Budget on ancillary items of...

World Bank president Robert Zoellick recently listed nine measures that the G20 should adopt under its current French presidency. These range from improving information about grain stocks and developing better weather-forecasting methods to strengthening social safety nets for the poor and helping small farmers benefit from tenders from humanitarian purchasers such as the World Food Programme . These measures tackle only the symptoms of the global food system's weaknesses, leaving the...

Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has been able to convey the impression that the agricultural sector was a key area of policy focus for his budget, but just about. He has chosen some good policies and programmes to boost agricultural development, but has done so in a half-hearted manner. Whether the agricultural sector actually benefits from his attention remains to be seen given that he has been niggardly in the...

Banning of future trading of essential commodities is recommended by Working Group on Consumer Affairs. Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday, submitted the report prepared by the group to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh which also included other suggestions to tackle inflation. Unlike the usual practice of voluminous reports, the committee submitted to the PM a precise document with 20 recommendations and 64 detailed actionable points. Besides ban on future trading,...