Abundant reserves, says Beijing $1.96-billion relief effort under way China on Tuesday said a record drought across its major wheat-producing provinces would not impact global food prices, with the country expected to meet its demand from “abundant reserves.” “China is self-reliant on food,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ma Zhaoxu told a regular press briefing. He was responding to a question on global concerns triggered last week after the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation...

Corruption and inflation, the bugbears of UPA-2, dominated discussions Congress functionaries held with finance minister Pranab Mukherjee amid expectations from the party that a populist Budget would help check the negative tide against the Centre. Party leaders are hoping specifically for income tax relief for the middle class and concessions for rural populace as the budgetary antidote to the negativity post-2G spectrum scam. Mukherjee assured his party that prices would come down...

Pranab Mukherjee today got an opportunity to escape the drudgery of financial jargon and immerse himself in phrases such as poor, women, Muslims, farmers, weavers and prices. At an annual pre-budget exercise at the Congress headquarters, most party leaders asked the finance minister to provide relief to “the common man”, bring down inflation to a single digit, reduce petrol prices, lower interest rates on agriculture, housing and education loans and offer...

The class bias in government policy is clear in the decision to release a small amount of foodgrain in the open market to tackle inflation. MOST people would agree that there is a strong element of speculation underlying the current inflation and that forward trading contributes to it. Yet the government, though it has banned forward trading in certain commodities under public pressure, is curiously reluctant to see this point....

In a step to alleviate the plight of millions of people affected by the 2008 Kosi floods, the Bihar government on Wednesday signed a $220-million agreement with the World Bank. The government will chip in with $39 million for the $259-million Bihar Kosi Flood Recovery Project aimed at supporting the State's recovery efforts, reducing risks of flooding and boosting emergency responses in the event of future disasters. At a function here, World...