Food stocks aplenty, but Centre eyes steps to curb prices further

As widely predicted, the El Niño weather pattern could hold back India's June-September monsoon rains critical for food output, and the Union government is closely tracking prices and supplies of key items, an official said, adding that the authorities could initiate more measures to contain inflation.

- Zia Haq

The Union food and public distribution secretary, Sanjeev Chopra, on June 2 met several representatives of the edible-oil industry, pressing for further cuts in retail prices amid a continued fall in global prices, according to the official who declined to be named. This was the top food ministry official's second meeting with cooking-oil processors and importers in a week.

On the same day, the Centre imposed caps on the quantity of tur (pigeon pea) and urad (black gram) - two commonly consumed pulses variety - that retail shops and traders are allowed to store, a measure known as stockholding limit usually invoked when there are signs of a potential price spiral.