Pulse of the people

India’s new arhar variety was launched by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley amid much fanfare, but what surprised many was the presence of the top bosses of the ministry, including Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian, at the unveiling ceremony. Subramanian had, some months back, prepared a report on India’s perennial pulses crisis and suggested some innovative ideas to solve it. The finance ministry’s conspicuous interest in pulses is understandable given that their spiralling retail prices have been one of the biggest challenges for the Narendra Modi government since 2014.