The Economic Survey has been silent on the proposed National Food Security Bill and the projections of foodgrains needed to provide food security to citizens. The chapter on Agriculture and Food Management talks of supply-side constraints, the need to feed a growing population, the procurement and off take of foodgrains, buffer stocks of foodgrains, food subsidy, the targeted public distribution system (TPDS), and the central issue price (CIP) of foodgrains, but...
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How not to tackle the black economy in India by Arun Kumar
Technically, we know how to check the black economy but the problem is political. More studies or committees and treaties with foreign governments are only to stall action. Another Joint Parliamentary Committee has been announced. The government has been trying to create an impression of being proactive with regard to tackling the black economy. The President's address and the speech by Sonia Gandhi in January mentioned the need to curb it....
More »Ashok Gulati to head Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices by Prabha Jagannathan
Ashok Gulati, Director in Asia for the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), was appointed Chairman of the Commission for Agriculture Costs and Prices for the Ministry of Agriculture , Government of India. Based in New Delhi, he will be involved in developing appropriate price policy and marketing structures for major agricultural commodities in the country. Gulati’s appointment begins on March 1. Bart Minten will be acting director of the New...
More »NAC undermined by Praful Bidwai
By stubbornly overruling the National Advisory Council, the government risks defeating its purpose as a body that speaks for the poor and the disadvantaged. HAS the Manmohan Singh government begun to regard the National Advisory Council (NAC) as an adversary who should be undermined? Going by their exchanges on key issues such as food security, wages under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), and the implementation of the Scheduled Tribes...
More »Not out of the woods yet by Ashish Kothari
The promise of the FRA remains largely unfulfilled, says a committee set up by the Ministries of Environment and Forests and Tribal Affairs. IT seems hard for a government used to controlling most of India's common lands to let go of them. Even though it has passed a law mandating more decentralised governance of forests, the government itself is proving to be the biggest obstacle in its implementation. Other than in...
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