-The Hindu Business Line   Input subsidy expenses not contributing to boost productivity The World Bank has said that South Asia's foodgrain stock management, especially in India, needs to improve to tackle inflation. In its focus on food inflation in South Asia, the bank said that high stocks have LED to high wastage due to inadequate storage capacity and technology. According to World Bank's estimates, the Food Corporation of India lost 10-16 million tonnes...

-The Times of India   Aruna Roy and Harsh Mander, members of the Sonia Gandhi-LED National Advisory Council, have joined Right to Food campaigners in demanding that Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia withdraw the poverty line affidavit fiLED by the panel before the Supreme Court or resign. In an open letter by the two prominent members of the UPA think-tank National Advisory Council in their capacity as members of the Right...

-BBC   A court in India has ruLED that West Bengal's state government acted legally in reclaiming land where Tata Motors wanted to build its low-cost Nano car. The 1,000-acre plot of land was acquired in 2006 by the state's former communist government and leased to the company for 99 years. The new state government took back the land in June to return it to farmers. Tata challenged the move in the high court in...

The state's rice bowl is left empty An unviable minimum support price (MSP) for rice has forced farmers in Andhra Pradesh to leave their lands fallow. The movement is spreading to other states. “Farming never pays” is a familiar slogan among agriculturists across the world, and especially so in India. Nevertheless, many continue to cultivate their fields year after year, barely eking out an existence, toiling in the hope that the tide...

-The Economic Times   The Planning Commission has raised questions about the administrative structure of the Nandan Nilekani-LED Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) and calLED for the appointment of an independent financial advisor to monitor its finances and transactions, days after the finance ministry rejected the authority's Rs 15,000 crore funding proposal. "The UIDAI's present system represents a major departure from government procedures and removes all inbuilt checks and balances. We...