Is India going to face inflation in cereal prices during the rest of the current financial year? Experts differ on this. An analysis by Nomura Global Economics and CEIC finds that a below normal monsoon does not always translate into high retail inflation in food. Similarly, an above normal southwest monsoon does not always bring down the rate of food inflation. However, some agricultural experts (please click here, here and...

-The Hindu Business Line The Centre should pay attention to fertiliser subsidy which is overshooting estimates by unacceptably large margins The economic crisis in India’s South Asian neighbours has turned the spotlight on fiscal profligacy leading economies on the path to ruin. While this has sparked debate on our States doling out freebies and subsidies, the fact is that the Centre too has some soul-searching to do on this front. Even as...

-Scroll.in A welfare scheme is not the space for technological experiments. In a state with poor nutrition, the government should act against corruption and exclusion. Ration dealers were siphoning off more than half of the grain entitlement of ration cardholders. That is what residents of several villages in Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum district noted at a recent public hearing on the functioning of the public distribution system in the area. The statements of participants...

-TheWire.in * A position paper drafted by a group of experts under the National Education Policy 2020 advances a misguided idea of nutrition couched in the language of nationalism. * The paper recommends that meat and eggs be removed from midday meals and from children’s lessons, but on unscientific grounds and through statements devoid of evidence. * The paper also uses conflates wildly different – and potentially dangerous – terms like “gene-diet interactions”,...

-Newsclick.in A finance ministry note has reportedly warned against too much spending on food and other subsidies. The scheme for providing 5 kg food grain to every individual in addition to the subsidised ration given to ration card holders may be finished after September. Called the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY), it was started during the first lockdown in April-May 2020 and has been extended every six months. It is...