-The Business Standard Peg decline at 7.8 percentage points between 2009-10 and 2011-12 The poverty rate has declined by 7.8 percentage points in two years, according to the latest estimates by the Planning Commission. If 29.8 per cent of the population was poor in 2009-10, the figure came down to 22 per cent in 2011-12. The estimates are based on the recently-released report by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) for 2011-12. This...

-Grist Media The proposed Food Security Bill will likely raise the demand for dal across India. While farmers and consumers are against it, the government keeps favouring the agri-industry and importing more and more cheap versions to offset rising inflation. But why won't India produce its own dal anymore? Nowhere are Canada's agricultural production plans tracked more closely than in India's Ministry of Food & Consumer Affairs. As it struggles to meet...

-The Hindu The recent launch of the first Dalit venture fund occasions an examination of the moral and ethical emptiness of capitalism History shows that where ethics and economics come in conflict, victory is always with economics B.R. Ambedkar If only Milind Kamble, founder of the Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI) and Chandra Bhan Prasad, Dalit thinker, columnist and DICCI mentor, had imbibed the wisdom of Manning Marable's How Capitalism Underdeveloped...

-The Business Standard The new price caps for 191 essential drugs are likely to introduce serious distortions in the market for these medicines The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority, or NPPA, has announced new price caps for 191 essential drugs that are 10 to 50 per cent lower than the current prices. Drug makers have 45 days to recall the earlier batches and send out new ones with the lower price tags. This...

-The New York Times Blog The right to food is finally becoming a lively political issue in India. Aware of the forthcoming national elections in 2014, political parties are competing to demonstrate - or at least proclaim - their commitment to food security. In a country where endemic undernutrition has been accepted for too long as natural, this is a breakthrough of sorts. The rhetoric, however, is not always matched by understanding...