The reduced allocation to the UPA government’s flagship rural programme NREGA could see revenue growth in the FMCG sector falter. Consumer staples firms have been relying on rural demand growth to bolster their top line but the reduced allocation to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGA) for the financial year 2012-13 could see growth in FMCG sales in rural areas being crimped feel industry experts. Finance minister Pranab...
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The worm in Bt brinjal-Sreelatha Menon
A new study questions safety assessments of Bt brinjal, asks for an independent regulator Does it matter if the gene introduced in Bt brinjal varies from the natural brinjal by 70 amino acids rather than by one? What if the regulators in the country fail to detect this and rubber stamp a genetically-engineered vegetable on the basis of the premise submitted by the company that produced it — Mahyco in...
More »ADB calls for another Green Revolution
-The Hindu Food subsidies for poorest will help them cope: ADB A hike in the cost of food staples like rice and wheat could push tens of millions more people into extreme poverty in the South Asian region including India, says an Asian Development Bank (ADB) report. The Manila-based lending agency, in its report “Food Price Escalation in South Asia – A Serious and Growing Concern” released on Monday, however, said that food...
More »The Food, the Bad and the Ugly-P Sainath
Average per capita net availability of foodgrain declined in every five-year period of the 'reforms' without exception. In the 20 years preceding the reforms — 1972-1991 — it rose every five-year period without exception. The country's total foodgrain production is expected to touch a record 250 million tons this year (2011-12). Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar PTI, February 17, 2012 Record foodgrain output of 235.88 million tons in 2010-11. Sharad Pawar, PTI, April 6, 2011 India's foodgrain...
More »Bedrock for reform
-The Business Standard Agri Survey diagnoses the key problems correctly The first-ever Agricultural Survey tabled in Parliament, emulating the presentation of the Economic Survey, seems a well-meaning exercise in candid analysis of the factors that have constrained the sector’s growth. Being an inaugural report card, it has done well not to confine itself to developments during 2011-12. The long-term trends do, indeed, provide the answers to some of the key questions...
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