A section of the government suspects that “bigger forces” are using the fight against corruption to achieve their “not-so-noble goals” perhaps even unknown to Anna Hazare. Although nobody would go on record, senior functionaries said in private that the destabilising games of some corporate and even international players were behind “the entire show”. “The RSS and other anti-Congress elements might have jumped in with their own little vested interests but the real...

Distribution of basic food grains and fuel at controlled prices every month through the Public Distribution System (PDS) could be the largest service provided by the Indian State, touching as it does over 65 million families through a network of nearly half a million retail shops. Given that the urban middle class has little stake in the health of the PDS, there have to be some compelling reasons for the...

High food prices prevented more than 19 million people in the Asia-Pacific region from lifting themselves out of poverty last year, the United Nations said in a new study released today, warning that soaring food and fuel inflation will keep large sections of the region’s population below the poverty threshold. The assessment by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) says that rising food prices can...

What can make a real difference to food prices is determined international action to increase food production in regions that are richly endowed with land and water resources High food inflation has been the source of major concern in India for more than a year. Soaring food prices have been the cause of unease internationally as well. A Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) press release of 3 March, 2011 indicates that...

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...