Forget the rhetoric, the FM’s left little for core social sectors The Union finance minister’s enthusiasm in marking the roadmap to financial discipline and pushing reforms in Budget 2010 is somehow missing in his proposals for inclusive growth. These proposals lack the required homework—in referring to relevant literature, including some recent government reports, and in making estimates of the required funds—and certainly do not reflect much commitment to inclusive growth. Agriculture—which...

Food inflation rose marginally to 17.87% for the week ended February 20 on the back of higher prices of milk, wheat, rice and vegetables. The figure in the previous week was at 17.58%. On an annual basis, price of rice increased 10%, wheat 14%, pulses 35%, onions 11% and potatoes 28%. Inflation in fuel, power light and lubricant group was 9.59%, slightly lower than 9.89% in the previous week. However,...

Surging food inflation, decline in agriculture growth rate and the impending food security bill are expected to be at the centre of the coming Union budget. With a bumper wheat harvest expected this rabi, there are projections of a turnaround in the farm sector from the present growth rate of 0.2 per cent. Food prices, which grew at an unprecedented rate of nearly 20 per cent in January, are expected...

At a time when other countries are cutting down ethanol admixing with vehicular fuel due to tightening supplies of alcohol, India, oddly enough, is doing the reverse. The Union government has forced the states to raise ethanol doping of petrol from 5 per cent to 10 per cent immediately and has set the target of hiking it further to 20 per cent by 2017, least realising that the sugar industry,...

Civil society organisations have demanded the speedy passage and implementation of the proposed National Health Bill, 2009, but with certain changes that ensure health as a universal entitlement to all sections of society. Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India, sought a National Health Act to ensure equitable distribution of medical facilities across the population. “The National Health Act should be on the lines of the Right to...