Prices of Toor Dal in India

Talking about food prices in India, I was totally taken aback on a recent trip when I saw that the price of a kg of Toor Dal was Rs. 90. I had to the shopkeeper a couple more times to be sure I had correctly. Good quality rice was selling at Rs. 30 - Rs. 40/kg and refined sunflower oil was Rs 80/liter or so. Oil cheaper than Toor Dal? (Yes, I know a liter is not the same as a kg, but still) Has that ever happened before? All through the years I was growing up oil was the most high priced item on the grocery list and was careful used in kitchens. But now Toor Dal was more expensive?

I began to ask around to understand why Toor Dal had risen in price. I asked shopkeepers, friends, family, NGO coordinators. "Oh yes, prices of Toor Dal has risen, doubled over the 3 months and tripled over the last 6 months", they would say. "It has become very hard to maintain meals for the children", said the coordinator of a NGO I know well. When pressed for reasons, I heard many: "hoarding by Tatas and Birlas and Reliance to shoot up prices later", or "exports have gone up", or "middle-men are hoarding, the businessmen have become ruthless", or, "consumption has gone up". The last reason seemed somewhat plausible as a contributing factor, and if so, did that mean that the supply was not keeping up with the demand? The hoarding sounded implausible, because when I asked further about reasons that could cause the hoarding at this particular point in time (was there a relaxation of some regulation?) there was no answer. It was quite surprising how hard it was to find out some plausible reasons for the increase in the price of Toor Dal.

By contrast in the US if the gas prices goes up by as much as 10 cents there is a slew of analysis and discussions on the topic. Every major media agency weighs in and there is much analysis on the airwaves. I am sure data is available in India as well, it just did not seem easily obtainable. Perhaps academic journals and some magazines have written on the issue.

It is not that people in the US speak sensibly on every topic, after carefuly gathering facts. The healthcare debate is a prime example of the contrary. But at least there is a framework to have discussions based on facts. Information seems more accessible to people who want to understand. And there are people who sensibly analyze topics based on facts.

Isn't this type of analysis based on facts and access to facts that education in India's schools should help achieve?