Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee presented Budget 2011-12 in Parliament on Monday promising to stimulate growth and bring down inflation. Admitting that food inflation remains a matter of concern, Pranab said that the economy could have performed better. He said that the development needs to be more inclusive while announcing increased outlay on social sector schemes. "Total food inflation is down from 20.2 per cent last year to 9.3 per cent...

There is no provision for the proposed National Food Security Bill in the budget proposals for 2011-12. The Bill will necessarily enhance the food subsidy as wheat and rice are to be made available at Rs.2 and Rs.3 a kg to the beneficiaries, but the budget does not reflect this. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee did make an announcement about bringing to Parliament the Bill “during the course of this year” but did...

India's finance minister announced on Monday a food security bill for 2011/12, a measure that would provide cheap grains for millions of India's poor but which has sparked worries of a huge fiscal cost. It was one of the first signs of populism in the annual budget as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh confronted high prices and corruption scandals as well as elections in five states this year. In his ongoing budget speech,...

Is the chemical fertilizer-based food production system sustainable? As a result, what happens to the soil and the larger issue of food security? After a raging debate, the government finally decided to hike the chemical fertilizer subsidy, to catch up with spiralling fertilizer prices in the global market. Also, there is talk about bringing urea under the Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) system and decontrolling its prices. Obviously, the fertilizer industry...

The possibility of the voluntary nature of the unique identity number project becoming virtually a compulsion in the light of entitlements being linked to the scheme saw members of a Parliamentary panel quiz UID chief Nandan Nilekani about its pitfalls. At a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee on Friday, MPs told Nilekani that despite his claims that the UID is merely a number — not indicative of citizenship, caste or...