Mainstream Weekly

Drought, Food Prices and the Poor in India

Sitaram Kumbhar — 2009-11-24T14:13:56Z

Chronic Drought and Temporary Relief
The politics of drought and food is not a new phenomenon in India. The drought is likely to give rise to inflationary pressures on food prices. Nevertheless, there is a need to make an assessment of the looming hunger due to acute deficit of rainfall this year and its' likely impact on the people who are/were on the edge of hunger. The impact of the drought could be severe due to multifarious reasons which this paper attempts to explicate.
The (…)

- November 2009

From Employment Guarantee to National Food Security

Sitaram Kumbhar — 2009-06-22T17:15:53Z

The President of India Pratibha Patel, in her first address to the joint session of Parliament after 15th Lok Sabha election, said that the UPA Government would pass a legislation called the “National Food Security Act” (NFSA) which would entitle, by law, to every family below the the poverty line in rural as well as urban areas to 25 kg of rice or wheat a month at Rs 3 a kg. This is something historic. The NFSA will guarantee that cheap foodgrain is made available to those who can claim it. (…)

- June 2009

Has the Congress earned Dividend from the NREGA?

Sitaram Kumbhar — 2009-05-23T17:59:53Z

There are many ways of making analysis of the winner in the 15th Lok Sabha election of 2009. Believe it or not, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), a flagship scheme, and farm loan waiver of the United Progressive Alliance Government helped it in the 2009 general election, like the garibi hatao (remove poverty) slogan of Indira Gandhi did to the Congress to regain power with a magnificent win in 1971. The only difference between the NREGA and garibi hatao is that the latter (…)

- May 2009

Electioneering in India: No Agenda for the Common People

Sitaram Kumbhar — 2009-05-02T21:18:00Z

One should not be surprised at last election's spat and the present spat between the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, and the UPA chairperson, Sonia Gandhi, because these are not new to Indian politics. A close assessment of the election campaign in India suggests that the genuine issues of the common people are routinely left out of the election campaigns (if not manifestos) of the political parties due to electoral compulsion. The political parties use such issues which have the (…)

- May 2009