Does inflation continue to be driven by food supply constraints?
Jay Shankar: No, inflation spilled over from food to manufactured items around January 2010. Ashima Goyal: No, inflation is becoming broad-based, moving beyond commodity prices. Shashanka Bhide: It is still driven by supply shortages. The rise in prices of raw materials and wage rates has spread it to other sectors. D.K. Joshi: It is no longer localised to food and has expanded to raw materials for manufactured items. Do you think that the government has made adequate efforts to control inflation? Jay Shankar: No. Food grains should have been released when prices started to go up. The food supply management needs to be more efficient. Ashima Goyal: No. After the poor monsoon, short-term measures like tariff cuts, free imports and distribution of food stocks were delayed. Shashanka Bhide: The government should have been more active in the openmarket sales of food grains. D.K. Joshi: The government did its bit, but slightly late. Also, it should be more active in improving food supply ma
