Besides Nafed, Mother Dairy, Kendriya Bhandar and the National Consumer Co-operative Federation (NCCF) were selling onions at Rs 40 per kg through their retail outlets.

Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, however, emphasises that there were challenges to the country's aspiration for growth in double digits.

Food inflation rose to 12.13 per cent for the week ended December 11, as prices of onion, milk and vegetables rose. It returned to the double-digits after four weeks.

Food inflation registered a sharp increase for the week ended December 11, from 9.46 per cent in the previous week, to enter double-digits for the first time since November 13.

Onion prices have soared to Rs 70-85 per kg in Delhi and other major cities, from Rs 35-40 per kg last week, due to damage of onion crops because of rains in south India.

The Indian government on Wednesday said it has brought down customs duty on imports of the commodity to zero from 5 per cent.

With wholesale rates at Nashik in Maharashtra crossing over Rs 70, there are fears the retail selling price in Delhi and elsewhere may edge towards Rs 100 a kg.

Managing Director Sanjeev Chopra, who had chaired the meeting of Price Fixation Advisory Committee on the commodity, hoped the steps will bring down the prices.

The prices, which were already high at Rs 35-40 a kg, rose astronomically since Sunday when it skyrocketed to Rs 60-70 a kg in the retail outlets in Delhi and nearby areas.

Price of food items like pulses and vegetables declined during the week ended November 13 on improved availability after the end of the monsoon season.

In the wake of 16-month-low industrial growth at 4.4 per cent in September, declining inflation may prompt the Reserve Bank of India to relax its monetary tightening drive.

Food inflation dropped to 12.85 per cent for the week ended October 23, from 13.75 per cent for the previous week, on the back of easing vegetable prices.

India is a land of plenty. It is also a land of plenty of waste. If you suffer Malthusian nightmares of the Great Unfed Billions, think of the food we produce that we don't even consume.

There’s little match for the decadence of a Brazilian churrascaria. We went to Wildfire in Gurgaon to see how it’s done.

Despite the appalling gaps in the delivery mechanics—cold chains, warehousing, processing centres and logistics—there is enough today to make entrepreneurs tackle specific projects in the farm-to-the table value chain. Entrepreneurs and investors are making most of the business opportunities that abound in the farm-to-fork value chain. Shamni Pande reports.

There has been an unprecedented rise in rural prosperity over the past two decades and new technologies have come in to partly offset poor infrastructure. Companies in agri-business are finally catching the pulse of the farmlands. Shalini S. Dagar goes into the details.

Whirlpool, written off as a has-been till as recently as five years ago, has scripted a remarkable comeback.

An impassioned, but one-sided, harangue on what’s wrong with the food system.

Psephology is a difficult job at the best of times and in the most homogenous of states. In India— with all casteist, religious, ethnic and regional fault lines—it is doubly so.

Make the best of a lazy Sunday. Pamper and treat yourself to some amazing food.