Even as the new year brings little cheer on the price front, the famed apathy of our officials continues to move the common man to tears. Nearly 200 tonnes of onions imported from Pakistan are lying at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) at Nhava Sheva while officials pass the buck for not releasing the bulb to onion-starved markets. The affected traders have indicated that the cargo is stuck for want...

If dal roti went out of reach for the aam admi in 2009, vegetables and onion prices brought tears towards the end of 2010 and with food inflation touching a high of 14.44 per cent for the week ending December 18, the New Year did not ring in any respite from high food prices. The sudden increase of Rs.3 per litre in the price of petrol in December — the sixth...

With the arrival of big onions from Pakistan and a ban on onion exports, wholesale onion market in Dindigul, one of the biggest markets in the State, witnessed a crash in the prices of big onions. However, prices of small onions remained stable. The prices of big onion that were hovering between Rs.90 a kg (top quality) and Rs.70 a kg for medium quality last week, came down to Rs.40 and...

Speculative traders are making super-profits by fixing prices in the onion trade while the government is playing around with ad hoc fixes. On Tuesday alone, wholesale traders in Delhi bought onions at about Rs 34 per kg while it was sold in retail at Rs 80 per kg. That's a margin of Rs 46 per kg or 135%! About 11,445 quintals of onion were bought in the Delhi wholesale markets on...

Onion prices have hit the roof across the southern states — Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. From Pune, Bangalore and Chennai the retail market feedback was the worst, a kilo going for between Rs 70 and Rs 80. Prices in Hyderabad too showed a steady rising trend. At supermarkets in glitzy Banjara Hills they had touched Rs 50 a kg and market watchers feared the rates could go even...