Rising prices of dal: How to deal with it? The 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly declared 2016 as the International Year of Pulses. In India, however, ordinary citizens are under enormous duress due to the skyrocketing prices of dal/ lentils since the last one year. The website of Price Monitoring Cell of the Department of Consumer Affairs shows that dal prices varied across places. For example, the...

-PTI The Odisha government has also decided to link Aadhaar numbers of beneficiaries for availing ration under NFSA and work under MGNREGA. Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Thursday said it has decided to make Aadhaar card mandatory for procurement of paddy in the state. This apart, the government has also decided to link Aadhaar numbers of beneficiaries for availing ration under NFSA and work under MGNREGA. “All farmers will be paid online for paddy...

-The Financial Express With a number of states commencing rollout of the National Food Security Act, 2013, only in the last couple of months, the government has decided to extend the rate at which highly subsidised grains are currently being supplied to states for distribution through the public distribution system (PDS) till end of the current fiscal. Sources told FE that the Centre would continue to provide subsidy so as to enable...

-The Hindu Business Line Govt’s production and distribution processes are out of sync with consumption patterns Of late, with growing income and awareness about nutritious food, there has been a noticeable decrease in the consumption of rice (a high-carb food) in Indian households. This change in consumption pattern, however, is not reflected in India’s agriculture policy which continues to revolve around rice and wheat. Moreover, current policies related to production, procurement, storage...

-The Hindu Business Line The Government has several short and long-term strategies to achieve self-sufficiency Who can deny that pulses are at the core of the average Indian diet? Therefore, the NDA government’s multi-pronged short-term and long-term strategies to meet the growing consumption of pulses in the country — from importing to increasing production through new technologies, and making cultivation attractive to farmers — is to be welcomed. In fact, pulses play...