Self-reliant sugar industry

The government has minced no words in telling the sugar industry to stop relying on subsidies and other support measures for its survival. It should go in for alternative business models, diversifying product profiles, and efficiency enhancement to become economically viable. While giving this sane counsel at the 86th annual general meeting of the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA), Union Food Minister Piyush Goyal also turned down the industry’s plea for reducing the floor price, called “fair and remunerative price” (FRP), for purchasing sugarcane from farmers. But the minister’s most consequential proclamation was to rule out the introduction of a