The trends in food inflation over the past 60 years are given. Having thus set the context, the factors driving structural food inflation, which should give us a perspective of the underlying dynamics and the nature of the challenge are also brought out. The policy measures for addressing the...

Stabilization of prices is an important element of food policy in India as in most other countries - both developing and developed. However, since the magnitude of grain stocks held for this purpose as well as the costs of physical storage have become prohibitively high, there is now a need for...

In the context of the current public policy focus on rising food prices and their implications for food security, this paper examines two major issues raised: (i) Universalization of the public distribution system; and (ii) its implications for procurement and buffer-stocks. This paper is based...

India's economic standing and its policy landscape have come a long way since the 1943 Bengal famine. History saw buffer stocking of food grains as a famine-combating tool. Today, apart from serving as an effective hedge in times of famines, such grain stocks are a conduit deployed by the...