-The Business Standard   Unlike consumer prices, wholesale inflation provides little comfort If the consumer price index (CPI) numbers for May, released last week, provided some comfort about softening inflation, the wholesale price index (WPI) numbers for the same month, released on Monday, did just the opposite. Headline inflation went up from 5.2 per cent year on year in April to six per cent in May, the highest, by a whisker, since December....

-The Citizen.in This piece is a rejoinder to an article by D K Joshi, which appeared in ‘The Indian Express' on June 4, 2014. The main arguments made by the author are neither new nor unique. Many neoliberal economists, including some occupying crucial policy-making positions have been making arguments which propose dilution of Minimum Support Price (MSP) policies to take care of excess food stocks with the government and also control...

-The Business Standard   A totally novel method needed to procure and disburse food Unbundling the Food Corporation of India (FCI) by hiving it into three separate entities for procurement, storage and distribution of foodgrain seems prima facie an unsound proposition. It would lead to a multiplicity of food handling agencies; the proliferation of bureaucracy would cause procedural delays and poor coordination. Administrative expenses, which are already high and bloating the food subsidy...

-The Hindu   The Union Health Minister, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, recently said he "supports" higher taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products. But even if he were to substantially increase the tax rates, will it make cigarettes and other tobacco products very expensive and hence reduce consumption? In the case of India, as per the current taxation practices, increasing the tax component is quite unlikely to reduce consumption drastically. This is unlike the...

-The Business Standard   Food articles inflation dips to 8.64% compared to 9.9% in March Wholesale Price Index-based Inflation fell by 0.5 percentage points to 5.2 per cent in April from 5.7 per cent in March, providing some relief to a new government amid other deteriorating macroeconomic numbers such as retail inflation and industrial output. All three major components of the index - food, fuel and manufactured goods - recorded moderation in inflation on...