Yes, food prices are rising but more competition is not the answer — it's time to stop over-consumption. Slowly, surely, a new mixture of consensus and fault lines is emerging about world food. On the one hand, there is agreement we are entering a new era in which basic agricultural commodity prices are rising after decades of falling. This will hit the poorest hardest, as an Oxfam report this week on...

To ensure transparency in delivery of commodities to the poor in Rajasthan The Rajasthan Government has decided to conduct the much sought-after social audit for fair price shops functioning under the public Distribution system (PDS) to ensure transparency and effectiveness in the delivery of essential commodities to poor people. The move follows the success of similar exercise for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. The social audit is being introduced...

Eminent economists have shot off a letter to National Advisory Council (NAC) Chairman Sonia Gandhi to ensure that the proposed Food Security Bill is quite comprehensive and excludes only a few rich people. They also want Sonia to get the Bill legislated in such a way it is not based on the current public Distribution system (PDS) for all times to come as direct subsidy transfer could also be an...

-The Times of India   The state government on Wednesday came out with a new public Distribution system for the people of Jangalmahal. After holding a meeting with food minister Jyotipriya Mullick, chief minister Mamata Banerjee said that a decision has been taken to provide rice at Rs 2 a kg to all communities in Jangalmahal. "There are many people in Jangalmahal who don't get proper food. Previously, those belonging to...

Oxfam, an international confederation of 15 human rights organisations fighting poverty and injustice, launched a new campaign here on Wednesday for a hunger-free world even as it announced that the number of hungry people the world over has crossed the billion mark and one in four of the world's hungry people live in India. Despite doubling the size of its economy between 1990 and 2005, the number of people in India...