Even as the new year brings little cheer on the price front, the famed apathy of our officials continues to move the common man to tears. Nearly 200 tonnes of onions imported from Pakistan are lying at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) at Nhava Sheva while officials pass the buck for not releasing the bulb to onion-starved markets. The affected traders have indicated that the cargo is stuck for want...

There has been a gross simplification of the issues involved in the exposures in the Radia tapes on the lack of integrity among mediapersons. In order to understand how exactly journalists really function it is necessary to understand the overall context in which they operate and clarify some of the persistent myths about what the profession is all about. Four myths in particular need to be dissected: That it enjoins...

The country’s onion output is likely to dip by over 12% to 10.5 million tonnes in the 2010-11 crop year due to untimely and erratic rains last year, a top official said. India produced 12 million tonnes of onions in the 2009-10 crop year. Onions are grown in three seasons — kharif (summer), late kharif and rabi (winter). “We expect onion output to decline by 1.5 million tonnes to 10.5 million...

Fog not only delays trains and flights, causes road accidents and makes the winter season depressing but also causes the prices of eggs to rise. The recent increase in egg prices is attributed to fog and the prices are likely to increase again as soon as the visibility drops. To add to that, onions and tomatoes are also becoming more expensive. According to Shabir Ahmed, secretary, Poultry Federation of India, eggs...

If dal roti went out of reach for the aam admi in 2009, vegetables and onion prices brought tears towards the end of 2010 and with food inflation touching a high of 14.44 per cent for the week ending December 18, the New Year did not ring in any respite from high food prices. The sudden increase of Rs.3 per litre in the price of petrol in December — the sixth...