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Indian Government Struggles to Keep Food Prices Under Control
February 17, 2008 at 2:34 PM
General Health News
"They argue because we've raised prices. But we had to increase them because everything -- wheat, butter and vegetables -- has gone up," says Sanjay Anand, second-generation owner of the restaurant in New Delhi's Connaught Place.
Small restaurants like his, as well as hundreds of millions of people across India have been hit by a huge surge in demand and prices for food worldwide.
The price hikes have triggered government anxiety over whether it can continue to ensure supply of affordable food for the country's 1.1 billion people.
Analysts say India -- which produces most of its own food, exports surplus items such as sugar and heavily subsidises supplies for the poor -- has so far managed to avoid severe price shocks.
But it is facing the same mix of factors as other nations that are grappling with rising food prices -- higher incomes are boosting demand for protein, surging demand for energy is pressuring oil prices, and diversion of agricultural land to urbanisation and industrialisation, as well as grain production for biofuels, is pushing land values sky high.
"Of course India is impacted by global events," said Saumitra Chaudhuri, economic advisor at Indian credit rating agency ICRA.
"The question is whether there'll be a supply response. Better yielding seeds, irrigation, technology and more efficient distribution can and probably will have a major impact.
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