Billions of dollars are being made by investors in a speculative "food bubble" that's created record Food Prices, starving millions and destabilising countries, experts now conclude. Wall Street investment firms and banks, along with their kin in London and Europe, were responsible for the technology dot-com bubble, the stock market bubble, and the recent U.S. and UK housing bubbles. They extracted enormous profits and their bonuses before the inevitable collapse of...

Prices across the three segments food, industrial goods and oil that determine inflation rising, the year-end inflation targets have been revised. The government had earlier estimated end-March inflation at 6% but RBI now has raised it to 7%. The Food and Agriculture Organisation has raised an alert over a potential spike in global prices of sugar and cereals, especially wheat. Though India might just get away thanks to a bumper output...

Inflation has made the fight against malnutrition harder. In a country where 46% of the country's children below three years are underweight and inflation has spiralled to above 15%, a meagre allocation of Rs 4 per day to feed a child is a mockery of the food programme. Small wonder then that states have demanded an increase in allocation and linking the government's Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) with consumer...

Between the Reserve Bank of India, the Union finance ministry and the army of economic advisors that surround Prime Minister Manmohan Singh no one seems to have a clue about how to get a grip over food inflation. Not only has the recent episode of high Food Prices seen surprisingly sharp spikes in the prices of vegetables and fruit but it has lasted longer than any other episode of inflation...

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...