The transformation taking place in India's agriculture and crop cultivation choices is brought about by a few key factors that have begun to heavily influence the patterns of crop cultivation, the movement of food through India and the effect of these on nutrition on different income classes in rural and urban habitats. In this view, foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail and the influence of the retail food industry is linked with climate change impacts and the proposed genetic engineering solutions; the combining of agriculture, health and nutrition is aided by pro-technology policies and consumption geared for urbanising India; and the domination by the USA of the crop science, research agenda and market reform process is still evident. These factors are responsible for the repetition of the misdiagnosis of impending hunger in the country by the Government of India as being a consequence of a lack of food, to be tackled today, and tackled exclusively by technological means.

Free trade agreements and bilateral investment treaties make privileges for and treatment of foreign direct investors legally binding. Thus, apart from the concerns of being able to capture the ''real'' financial and economic contribution of foreign direct investment inflows, FDI definitions are also about protecting the ''rights'' of the so-defined investors in the host country. Keeping this in mind, the article analyses India's current FDI policy and warns that if we define FDI within our national regulatory framework too broadly to allow instruments and flexibility that were earlier resisted, we would have already lost most of the leverage in investment negotiations at the regional and multilateral levels.

This Report is an update of the Rural Food Insecurity Atlas of 2001 released by the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) and the World Food Programme (WFP). Since then, numerous new programmes have been initiated by the central and state governments for achieving food security in the country. Giving a broad indicative picture of the level of food insecurity in different states and the operation of the nutrition safety net programmes, the Report concludes that the State has to play a crucial role in enhancing foodgrain output, ensuring the widest access to food through expansion of livelihood opportunities and promoting biological utilisation through appropriate investments in public health measures.

In the present situation of global economic crisis and national economic slowdown, ''inclusive'' public expenditure, such as in the NREGS, is not only desirable from a social or welfare perspective - it also provides very direct economic benefits. This is because wage employment schemes like NREGS tend to be self-targeting and thus will lead to a higher multiplier effect, making government expenditure more effective in reviving output and indirect employment.

Negating the impact of the current inflationary episode in India on the poor requires both the ensuring of appropriate supplies through imports, and a transfer of purchasing power from the profit earners to the workers. Hence, even if augmentation of supplies through resorting to imports, as the government is doing now in the case of foodgrains, succeeds in ending inflation, there is still the need to put additional purchasing power in the hands of the poor so that they regain their earlier real income. The author argues that the basic problem with the 2007-08 budget is that it is oblivious of these social demands of a situation of profit inflation.

The paper explores the controversy that has surrounded the West Bengal Government's land acquisition programme in Singur and situates it within the overall context of economic growth and transformation. It argues one of the most adversely affected groups as a result of the acquisition is relatively large farmers for whom agriculture is a source of accumulation and not livelihood and subsistence. This might explain in part why the resistance has been so strong. The paper argues that equitable and sustained growth is possible only by reducing the share of agriculture in the labour force and therefore that the West Bengal Government's strategy has to focus on maximising the generation of non-farm rural employment.

The declared aims of the Planning Commission's Approach to the XIth Plan, all of which require substantially increased public expenditure in physical infrastructure and social sectors, simply cannot be met within the confines of a restrictive fiscal policy stance. The need to rethink policies of resource generation and financial regulation is therefore urgent. In this context, this paper, presented to the National Commission on Enterprises in the Informal Sector, seeks to examine the effects of the three perceptions underlying the prevailing fiscal conservatism, questions their validity and offers some alternatives for mobilising resources for development.

Basel II is the modified framework of supervisory regulations governing capital adequacy for internationally active banks, published by the Basel Committee of Banking Supervision. This paper argues that while the Revised Accord is yet another attempt by the global financial community to remedy the woes associated with unhindered financial liberalization, it will only serve to exacerbate the already existing conflicts between the objectives of financial stability and economic development facing developing countries under the present paradigm.