The high prices of essential commodities are expected to decline by the end of the rabi season in the next two months, Vijay Shankar Vyas, member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, said here on Tuesday. “Food inflation would come down by March-April as we are expecting a good rabi production this year,” Dr. Vyas told journalists on the sidelines of the launch of a publication on agriculture, Millions Fed,...

Hit by soaring food inflation, the government moved into urgent damage control mode on Wednesday, with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stepping into the frame and deciding to meet chief ministers to urge stronger anti-hoarding measures and improved lifting and distribution of foodgrains. The Centre plans to quickly release 2-3 million tonnes of wheat and rice in the retail market, using its own agencies like NAFED and NCCF besides PDS outlets....

A solution to the pulses and edible oils crisis is entirely within reach.  The state of India’s food security is worsening by the year. The cost of food items is increasing rapidly, making them unaffordable to a majority of the people. Added to these woes is the short supply of pulses and edible oils, which forces the Central government to import them. Pulses play a critical role in the diet of...

India achieved the distinction of being the second fastest growing economy amid the global recession in 2009, but the joy was marred by the decade’s sharpest rise in food prices to the chagrin of common man. For a country that continued to lose on its exports throughout the year that has gone by, economy achieved a remarkable growth of about 7% (during April- September 2009) on the back of focused government...

The national biofuel policy announced by the government last week is well-intentioned but is not really practical. It aims for achieving a 20 per cent blending of biofuels with petrol as well as diesel by 2017. Given that even the 5 per cent ethanol doping target — raised to 10 per cent last October — is yet to be achieved makes the target quite unachievable. The sugar industry, which is...