The spectre of a global food crisis has reared its head again. Soaring corn prices, which on Monday recorded their biggest one-day rise since 1973, have triggered fears of a return to the turmoil of 2007-2008. Far-reaching measures are needed to prevent a recurrence. Rising prices over the last decade are in part the result of burgeoning demand from emerging markets such as China and India. The emergence of commodities as...

The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) today demanded a CBI inquiry into the alleged Rs 10,000-crore financial scam in the field of Public Distribution System (PDS) in Assam during the tenure of Congress-led State Government. Criticizing the State Government for its failure to strengthen the PDS system in the State, the party said that the essential commodities meant for the BPL and APL families of the State are being sold in the...

The amount of rural reportage in the Indian media remains far too low, with even important stories such as those on farmer suicides tending to be ignored. One of the outspoken critics of this trend has been P Sainath, rural-affairs editor of The Hindu  and 2007 winner of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts. He was also the journalist who originally broke the story on...

With just a month remaining for sugarcane crushing, a confrontation between farmers and private millers in Uttar Pradesh on the price to be paid to growers is on the cards. In no exception to previous years, both parties have divergent views on what should a farmer get for his produce. At a meeting of a committee formed under the chairmanship of Uttar Pradesh Cane Commissioner Kamran Rizvi to fix the state-advised...

Delhi is an anxious city this monsoon season, struggling to meet an onerous deadline. Preparations continue at a feverish pace for the 19th Commonwealth Games (CWG), which will bear down on the Indian metropolis October 3-14, along with some 8,500 athletes from the 71 states and territories that were once part of the British Empire. Around-the-clock construction and spells of heavy monsoon rain have turned Delhi into a swirl of mud...