Sen panel to miss report deadline again

The Abhijit Sen Committee, set up by the government to establish the impact of futures trading on essential food items, may miss the deadline for submitting its report for the second time.

"We may have to seek extension once again as the report is yet to be finalised," a member of the committee said on condition of anonymity.

He said, two of the committee's five members are likely to submit their study reports only by tomorrow, making it difficult to compile all the documents by August 2 - the deadline for submitting the report to government.

When contacted, the convener of the panel, Kewal Ram, refused to comment.

The government had set up the committee, headed by Planning Commission Member Abhijit Sen, to study the extent of impact, if any, of futures trading on wholesale and retail prices of agricultural commodities.

While issuing the notification on March 2, the Consumer Affairs Ministry had asked the panel to submit its report within two months.

Thereafter the panel got two months and then an additional month's extension and accordingly was to submit its report by August 2.

The committee would also suggest ways to increase the farmers' role in futures market to help them reap the benefits of price discovery.

Besides Sen, other members of the committee are Rajya Sabha MP Sharad Joshi, Forward Markets Commission Member Kewal Ram, Prakash Apte of IIM Bangalore and Siddharth Sinha of IIM Ahmedabad.