Retail prices of onions continued to remain high on Tuesday even as a ban on exports led to a 30% fall in wholesale rates. The government, however, cautioned that retail prices would fall from current exorbitant levels (of Rs 75-80 per kg) only after three weeks. But prices are expected to return to the last month's reasonable levels (Rs 20-25 per kg) across the country only in March, when the...

While children are dying of malnutrition, our leaders are busy comforting the corporate sector   This week’s show of ‘Walk the Talk’ by Shekhar Gupta was the third in a series of episodes that seemed to be dedicated to bringing forth the corporate viewpoint to counter the current environment of mistrust, post Radiagate. While the first two were with Ratan Tata and Deepak Parekh, obvious corporate representatives, it is telling that as...

The Prime Minister’s Office has given direct orders to top officials of Sharad Pawar’s department to get cracking after the food minister said it would take “two to three weeks” for onion prices to stabilise. Sources said an annoyed Manmohan Singh has conveyed to Pawar that the time frame set by the minister is too long, especially since prices have skyrocketed within a week. Expressing deep concern over the “extraordinary price rise...

Four years ago, High Court asked the State to bring the rate to almost nil Infant mortality rate stands at 33, two points down from 35 in 2006 Rural infant mortality at 53 has not declined since NFHS-2 done in 1998-1999 Four years ago, alarmed by the level of child mortality in Maharashtra, the Bombay High Court directed the State government to “ensure that by September 30, 2011, the infant mortality rate due...

If present political trends and shifts in Andhra Pradesh intensify, the State could see an election within a year. And not just over Telangana. When Chandrababu Naidu sits on a hunger fast for suffering farmers, you know something is afoot in Andhra Pradesh. Excessive rains have devastated the crops in the State. And losses have been enormous. But a farmer losing over Rs.15,000 on an acre of paddy will get less...