Indian Revolutions

Story hook

It is August 2024. The Ministry of Consumer Affairs releases its monthly retail pulse-price bulletin. Tur dal: Rs.180/kg in Delhi, Rs.195 in Mumbai, Rs.175 in Chennai — a price level that two years earlier (Rs.105/kg in 2022) would have triggered panic in North Block. Urad at Rs.140. Chana at Rs.95. The 12-month food-inflation print is dragged up almost single-handedly by pulses. India simultaneously becomes the world's largest pulses producer (~25 mt), consumer (~28 mt) and importer (~6 mt 2024).

A few corridors away, the Department of Food and Public Distribution finalises the next NAFED procurement order for tur from Mozambique under the G2G (Government-to-Government) memorandum — 5-year framework signed 2022 Mozambique, 2023 Malawi, guaranteeing Indian state offtake of African tur at agreed prices. Across the table sits a contradictory statistic from the Department of Agriculture: India's edible-oil import bill has touched Rs.1.4 lakh crore (FY24) — the country imports ~60% of its edible oils, predominantly palm from Indonesia/Malaysia and sunflower from Russia/Ukraine.

In a 2024 budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announces the National Mission on Edible Oils — Oilseeds (NMEO-Oilseeds) with an outlay of Rs.10,103 crore for 2024-25 to 2030-31, building on the existing NMEO-Oil Palm (2021) with its Rs.11,040 crore corpus. The target: edible oil self-sufficiency by 2030, the second Yellow Revolution.

For UPSC, pulses and oilseeds together form the perennial Mains-prelims battleground on agricultural self-sufficiency.

Why this matters for UPSC

GS-III essays on agricultural diversification, import substitution, food inflation, and MSP architecture invariably touch pulses and oilseeds. Prelims has tested NFSM-Pulses, NMEO-OP, NMEO-Oilseeds, the Bharat Atta/Dal initiative, and tur G2G MoUs. Expect one or two MCQs per year.