-The Indian Express How Punjab is making the best use of the flawed public distribution system. Inclusive economic growth is a political, economic and social necessity. The question is: what is the right strategy to ensure this? Most of our programmes to help the underprivileged have suffered from leakages and inefficiencies, so that the benefits have not accrued to the targeted groups but the strain on our fiscal deficit remains. Subsidies are...

-The Hindu     Aberrations in monsoon behaviour are not uncommon. What is new is the difficulty in forecasting caused by factors coming under the generic title, ‘Climate change.' Forecasts by the South Asian Climate Outlook Forum and the India Meteorological Department indicate that the south-west monsoon rainfall may be deficient. Also, there is a possibility of the evolution of an El Niño event during June to September. There is a 45 per cent...

-Deccan Herald   Barely emerging out of the shadows of freak weather, the warning of a weak monsoon will push millions of farmers into dire straits. In the midst of all the noise and muck-slinging that dominates the election campaigns there is bad news on the horizon. No, I am not talking of the possibility of a hung Parliament where the numbers don't add up for any political front, but the possibility of...

-PTI About 40 per cent of government's foodgrain is stored in an "unprofessional" way due to acute shortage of storage capacity to the tune of 35 million tonnes, industry chamber Assocham said on Wednesday. Currently, 70 per cent of the total warehousing capacity of 112 million tonnes is owned by the government. Additional 35 million tonnes of storage capacity is required in the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17) period, it said. "About 30-40...

-The Business Standard Unfavourable weather conditions in US, Brazil; reduced supply on geopolitical tensions supported move, to ease soon Global food prices rose sharply to hit a 10-month high in March, following a 2.3 per cent rise in the prices of Agricultural commodities brought on by unfavourable weather conditions in the United States and Brazil, coupled with geopolitical tensions in the Russian region. While the global commodity price rise opened an opportunity for...