-Live Mint The absence of genuine competition at mandis and numerous transaction charges are distorting onion prices The joke doing the rounds today is that the spike in onion prices has been a great equalizer, bringing parity between the price of a bottle of beer and a kilo of onion. The humble vegetable has also found pride of place as a gift item to customers at a tyre shop in Jamshedpur,...

-The Hindu The UPA seems to have forgotten that the country's trade commitments, including to the WTO, stand in the way of its implementing the Food Security Ordinance The last time I began an essay with the words "in this era of globalisation," in high school, even my teacher winced at the cliché. In junking the phrase, however, we may have forgotten its import too. The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) certainly seems...

-The Business Standard The service would be launched across the country to provide information, advisories and services for India's 120 mn farmers Following the footsteps of services like Reuters Market Light (RML) of Thompson Reuters and Dr. Dekalb Farm Care of Monsanto India, the Union department of agriculture is starting its own SMS-based farm information and advisory service to be called the Kisaan SMS. According to an official statement, the SMS-based service would...

-The Hindu The current market prices are essentially over and above the actual cost of production - a difference that could run from 100 per cent to 5,600 per cent, depending upon various therapeutic categories In a liberalised market economy, do we need price controls on drugs? Policymakers and the pharmaceutical industry do not think so. They believe that price controls are an inefficient tool that distorts resource allocation, squeezes revenue, reduces...

-The Hindu The outlets in the city's immediate southern suburbs and one in Porur boast of a huge price difference of locally-available vegetables compared to those in other markets Chennai: Residents cutting across the social and economic spectrum flocked to the farm-fresh consumer outlets in the city's suburbs on Thursday, soon after their inauguration earlier in the day. Chief Minister Jayalalithaa launched 31 ‘Pannai Pasumai Nugarvor Kootturavu Kadai' through video-conferencing from the Secretariat....