Here is an example of poor Governance..
India is struggling with a plunging currency, decrepit infrastructure and government corruption. But at the top of the pre-election agenda now: the price of onions and wheat.
Forty-five percent of the onion produce in India comes from the states of Maharashtra and Karnataka
Along with errant rainfall, hoarding, official incompetence and price-ramping by traders have also been blamed for the crisis
Onion prices across India move in tandem with prices in Nashik’s Lasalgaon mandi, Asia’s biggest onion market.Lasalgoan is in many ways a case study of dysfunctional agricultural markets in India, dominated by trader cartels under political patronage.
The entire range of intermediaries comprising the commission agent, wholesaler, transporter, storage chain owner, and even the railway agent, usually belong to the same family
Across major onion markets in India, a network of a few families controls the supply chain, and effectively blocks new entrants
The absence of genuine competition at the mandi and numerous transaction charges distort prices, and the lack of viable alternatives to the mandi limits investments in better infrastructure, leading to high wastage across the supply chain. These factors have played a crucial role in pushing up onion prices rapidly over the past decade despite a threefold increase in production.
