Government sat on grain stocks while food prices shot up   In july 2008, when inflation rose to a 10-year high of 11 per cent and industry was hit by a range of factors, including economic recession, the Union government responded immediately. There were day-on-day monetary interventions. Since July 2009, inflation, as calculated by the prices poor consumers pay for their daily needs, has hovered around 11 per cent, again a 10-year...

The Prime Minister's economic adviser, C Rangarajan, wants the Reserve Bank to remove excess money from the system to check rising prices as food inflation neared the decade's high of 20 per cent. "We need to see that liquidity does not put inflationary pressures and for that some action on the monetary front would also be required," said Rangarajan, Chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) and a former...

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...

After easing a bit in the previous week, food inflation was back to near-20% levels in the third week of December as items such as potatoes and pulses continued to belie hopes of sustained relief over prices of essential commodities. The wholesale price-based index of food articles rose by 1.18% for the week ended December 19 from 18.65% a week ago. One week before that, food inflation had stood at...

Amid rising food prices hitting the household budget, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday said he has no "instant solution" to the problem. "Unlike instant coffee, there is no instant solution to such vexed problem as inflation," he told reporters when asked about the steps being taken by the government to check food inflation which almost touched 20 per cent during the third week of December. Discounting the possibility of...