Rising prices of dal: How to deal with it? The 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly declared 2016 as the International Year of Pulses. In India, however, ordinary citizens are under enormous duress due to the skyrocketing prices of dal/ lentils since the last one year. The website of Price Monitoring Cell of the Department of Consumer Affairs shows that dal prices varied across places. For example, the...

-Livemint.com The difference between wholesale and retail prices was as high as 52% for a variety of pulses, shows an analysis of available data New Delhi: High prices of pulse varieties have been a constant point of worry for consumers and governments over the past year. While consecutive years of deficit rain cut supplies, leading to higher imports and a spike in prices, what went unnoticed is the divergence between retail...

-The Hindu Business Line New Delhi: Sowing of kharif crops in the first week of August remained on track as rains continued to be plentiful and acreage under most major crops such as rice, pulses, coarse cereals and oilseeds posted a rise compared to the previous year. Total acreage under kharif crops till August 5 this year at 885.29 lakh hectares (lh) compared to 841.65 lh sowed in the same period last...

-The Hindu Business Line Fourth advance estimate pegs wheat production at 93.5 million tonnes New Delhi: Reinforcing its earlier assessment, the Centre has pegged foodgrain production in the country at 252.22 million tonnes (mt) in 2015-16 in its fourth advance estimates — almost the same as 2014-15’s (July-June) production of 252.02 mt. Production of major commercial crops in 2015-16, including cotton, sugarcane and oilseeds, was lower than in the previous year, according to...

-The Hindu We need to rethink social safety nets in India’s growing economy so that they can also focus on the accidents of life rather than solely on the accidents of birth. Sometimes the grand narratives of the Left and the Right do not seem to have any relationship with the lived experiences of ordinary Indians. For the past two decades, the Left has tried to expand social welfare programmes for the...