-Live Mint By giving in to pressure from the US and EU, India has landed itself and the developing world in a bad trade deal The stenographic cacophony in the Indian media had a singular triumphalist message from the ninth World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meet in Bali: India had secured a major victory by safeguarding its food security programme and stood its ground against the US and the European Union...

-Economic and Political Weekly Punjab's new Agriculture policy based on a report prepared by the Committee for Formulation of Agriculture Policy for Punjab focuses on yield enhancement and market orientation instead of demand-driven Agriculture. While the report talks about the need for diversification, it does not bother to analyse the failure of earlier policies. The report is on the whole short on analysis and long on recommendations. Sukhpal Singh (sukhpal@iimahd.ernet.in) is with...

-The Business Standard Onion prices in wholesale markets of Mumbai declined 48.6%, the steepest among the four metros, compared to October In November, onions, which stoked inflation in recent months and probably played a part in the Congress party's dismal performance in four Assembly elections, turned cheaper in four major cities - Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata - at both the wholesale and retail levels. However, the decline in wholesale prices was...

-Live Mint The national food security law is in trouble from an unlikely source The outcome of the World Trade Organization (WTO) summit at Bali has been projected as a great victory for the Indian government by its spokespersons. Nothing could be farther from the truth. In exchange for a temporary reprieve on its food support programme, India has bartered away the bargaining chip of trade facilitation, which Western negotiators demanded. The...

-eSocialSciences.com   This piece analyzes the implications of the National Food Security Act for India's commitments under the WTO Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) in the context of widespread concern that they might be mutually incompatible. An analysis of support to rice and wheat for the period 1995-2012 suggests that the current scale of operations are at levels implied by the NFSA and that it is possible to leverage existing provisions in the...