Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Deputy Governor Subir Gokarn on Wednesday said food inflation was beginning to look structural and the best way to tackle it was by addressing supply-side issues. “We have been emphasising that food inflation is starting to look structural in nature...We have come to the conclusion that there is a structural driver to food inflation. In this case, the apt approach is to address the supply side,”...

The country’s economic growth is expected to remain strong despite sluggishness in the manufacturing sector as a rebound in agricultural output is expected to support overall growth. Growth in the key farm sector, which accounts for nearly 17% of the nation’s GDP, has been a concern for policymakers for the past few quarters. But, healthy monsoon has raised expectations of strong farm output during July-September 2010. In addition, the arrival of...

The Cabinet on Tuesday decided to raise the pension paid to Endosulfan victims who are unable to perform any form of wage labour from Rs. 1,000 to Rs. 2,000 a month. Briefing reporters after the weekly Cabinet meeting here on Tuesday, Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan said the other Endosulfan victims would be paid Rs.1,000 as pension. The pension would be made available to the victims through the Social Security Mission under...

The government is probing funds received by 77 NGOs from foreign shores , including tax havens, to find out their sources, suspected forex violation and alleged illegal investment. The probe has been launched after the Intelligence Bureau (IB) shared with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) the activities of the non-government organisations and their suspected foreign sources of funds. The investigations by the enforcement agencies will try to find out from which countries...

The government proposes to introduce a bill to regulate microfinance institutions (MFIs), accused of aggressive loan recovery practices, minister of state for finance Namo Narain Meena said on Tuesday. The move follows tight scrutiny of the fast-growing, largely unregulated, small loans sector after fears of large-scale defaults due to high interest rates and reports of suicides due to mounting debt. “The Department of Financial Services proposes to introduce the Micro Finance (Development...