Thiruvoipati Nandakumar How is better delivery expected by allocating more foodgrains, when the system is not equipped to handle even the current level of allocation? The debate about the proposed national food security act seems to be centred on the magnitude of the allocation of food grains. But the issue is far beyond only foodgrains. It is about improving health, sanitation and nutrition standards so that India’s human development goals can be...

The class bias in government policy is clear in the decision to release a small amount of foodgrain in the open market to tackle inflation. MOST people would agree that there is a strong element of speculation underlying the current inflation and that forward trading contributes to it. Yet the government, though it has banned forward trading in certain commodities under public pressure, is curiously reluctant to see this point....

Illegality in India today touches almost every economic activity. It is both systemic and systematic. The Indian ruling class faced its severest crisis of credibility in 2010. Its past caught up with it and skeletons and scams were spilling out of its closets. The scams have a symbiotic relationship with the black economy. The number of scams is growing and so is the size of the black economy, which has reached...

Don't let the cold winter this year blindside you to a contrary phenomenon that is creeping up upon us. Temperatures in India are set to get higher—higher than what the country has recorded in the past 130 years. The monsoon too is going to change; it will rain as much, perhaps higher, but in short, intense bursts, heightening the risk of floods and crop failure. These are some of the grim...

If you thought only onion made headlines and governments fall, here is some more food for thought. The retail prices of brinjal soared 110% and those of tomato by 125% between the first weeks of November 2010 and January 2011, while the rise in crude oil paled in comparison, climbing about 12% in the same period. While import-dependent economies are struggling to keep their fiscal math in shape with crude...