To address the issue of escalating prices of pulses, the Union government  set up a high-level committee headed by Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian to consider a “reasonable increase” in minimum support price (MSP) for pulses and bonus for farmers. The committee will submit its report in two weeks.

Prices will come down in the next 2-3 months. According to the Agriculture Ministry’s report, pulse output is expected to go up to 20 million tonnes this year. This is higher than last year’s production of 17 million tones.

• India is largest producer of pulses but also largest consumer and a very large importer. The country is on average facing a shortage of 7.6 million tonnes of pulses.

               Domestic output in 2015-16 stood at 17 million tonnes while annual demand is estimated to be 24.6 million tonnes. In crop year 2016-17, the government is expecting increase in production nevertheless.

• At the meeting attended among others by Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh, Information and Broadcasting Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu and Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Paswan said that the central government can provide more pulses to the states – ‘tur’ at Rs 66 per kg and ‘urad’ at Rs 82 – for retail distribution.

• Government has so far agreed to import 2 lakh tonnes of pulses each from Mozambique and Myanmar.

• A ministerial committee headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also decided to increase the buffer stocks to 20 lakh tonnes from the existing 8 lakh tonnes.

• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) at its meeting presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided to give a “bonus, over and above the recommendations of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP)” of Rs 425 per quintal for kharif pulses — for arhar (tur), urad and moong dals and for oilseeds.