Onion price-rise: Food programmes on TV dish out recipes for inflation-stung middle class viewers
NEW
DELHI: At a time people in power seem unable to check runaway onion
prices and overall food inflation, the common man can find some help to
manage his daily budget in...cookery shows on TV.
Several celebrity chefs and television channels are busy rolling out food programmes focusing on recipes that suit the pockets of middle-class audience by avoiding onions or suggesting substitutes for fancy ingredients or using low-priced vegetables.
"We have started a new programme called Kifayati Kitchen, keeping in mind food inflation, in order to help our audience make exotic dishes with simple ingredients that would not burn a hole in their pockets," says Amit Nair, business head at Zee Khana Khazana, a 24-hour food channel.
Celebrity chefs such as Vikas Khanna of Masterchef fame and Aditya Bal, who hosts Bachelor's Kitchen on NDTV Good Times channel, too, now focus on helping viewers cook good food within a limited budget as prices of onion and tomato have gone through the roof despite RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan's efforts to check inflation.
Data released by the commerce and industry ministry shows that vegetable prices shot up 78.4% year-on-year in October with onions costing 278.2% more than last year and tomato being 122% more expensive.
Overall food inflation increased 18.2% during the month. Egg, meat and fish prices rose an annual 17.5% while fruit shot up 15.9% year on year, according to official data.
"Fighting economy and inflation is beyond our might," says chef Khanna, whose 52-week cookery show Vikas@Home on Yahoo Lifestyle Cuisine shares simple recipes using ingredients that every housewife in the country can get without spending too much. "What we can do is use creativity and explore for alternative ingredients," he says.
Cheaper Spices & Greens
Khanna has tried to incorporate such alternatives, especially for spices, in his upcoming book 'Bliss of Spices: The Essence of Indian Kitchen'. "In India, we have a whole range of alternate ingredients available such as instead of saffron one can use the less expensive 'anatto', which is a colouring agent, and rather than using expensive cloves we can use its stem," he says.
Zee Khana Khazana's Amit Nair says this season of Kifayati Kitchen will have 39 episodes and it will be on air till February. "Our chefs in this show and also in other shows try to use less expensive and easy-to-get ingredients. We also suggest substitutes for fancy ingredients such as coco or tips like if you have to make your curry thick without using too much onion and tomatoes you can use corn starch," he says. Bal of Bachelor's Kitchen says usage of stems and other non-prime items of cauliflower and some green vegetables is a good way to reduce wastage. "Culturally, such practices are common in our country and can come in handy during such times."
Bal's favourite budget dish is pulao made out of leftover food and soup made from non-prime parts of vegetables.
That's the kind of skills that a lot of housewives would love to learn in these days.
In general, operators also need bandwidth for improving quality of services, said Hemant Joshi, partner, Deloitte Haskins & Sells.
New Delhi expects to get Rs 30,000-40,000 crore from the auctions and one-time spectrum fee proceeds, Sibal said. The government is desperate for cash to bridge its gaping fiscal deficit. It hopes to limit the deficit to 4.8% of gross domestic product for the fiscal year through March 31.
EGoM's decisions come after a sharp exchange between Trai and the telecom department (DoT) over the controversial issue of bandwidth pricing and auctions in the 800 Mhz band.
While Trai had suggested slashing by up to 60% the floor price of airwaves in the 900 MHz band and by about 37% in the 1800 MHz band, DoT wanted the prices to be raised by about 80% and 47%, respectively over what the regulator had suggested.
Telecom Commission, the highest decision-making body in DoT, finally agreed to prices which were 15% higher than what Trai suggested for the 1800 Mhz band, and 25% higher in the 900 Mhz band.
Trai and DoT were also split over auctions in the 800 Mhz band, with the former opposed to it and the latter in favour. Telecom Commission, and now EGoM, went with DoT's view.
Ashok Sud, president of AUSPI, the CDMA industry body, welcomed the move to auction bandwidth in the 800 Mhz band, but wanted that to be held simultaneously with the other two bands "so that some of our players that hold dual-technology licenses would know how much spectrum and in which bands can they bid".
Speaking to ET over phone, he said some of those dual-technology operators would be keen to bid in the 900 MHz band, and hence, if the 800 Mhz band auction were to happen later, "it may derail the entire auction process".
Companies such as Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices offer services on both the CDMA and GSM platforms.
Meanwhile, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India will submit much-awaited guidelines on spectrum trading to the Telecom Commission likely on January 15.
Several celebrity chefs and television channels are busy rolling out food programmes focusing on recipes that suit the pockets of middle-class audience by avoiding onions or suggesting substitutes for fancy ingredients or using low-priced vegetables.
"We have started a new programme called Kifayati Kitchen, keeping in mind food inflation, in order to help our audience make exotic dishes with simple ingredients that would not burn a hole in their pockets," says Amit Nair, business head at Zee Khana Khazana, a 24-hour food channel.
Celebrity chefs such as Vikas Khanna of Masterchef fame and Aditya Bal, who hosts Bachelor's Kitchen on NDTV Good Times channel, too, now focus on helping viewers cook good food within a limited budget as prices of onion and tomato have gone through the roof despite RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan's efforts to check inflation.
Data released by the commerce and industry ministry shows that vegetable prices shot up 78.4% year-on-year in October with onions costing 278.2% more than last year and tomato being 122% more expensive.
Overall food inflation increased 18.2% during the month. Egg, meat and fish prices rose an annual 17.5% while fruit shot up 15.9% year on year, according to official data.
"Fighting economy and inflation is beyond our might," says chef Khanna, whose 52-week cookery show Vikas@Home on Yahoo Lifestyle Cuisine shares simple recipes using ingredients that every housewife in the country can get without spending too much. "What we can do is use creativity and explore for alternative ingredients," he says.
Cheaper Spices & Greens
Khanna has tried to incorporate such alternatives, especially for spices, in his upcoming book 'Bliss of Spices: The Essence of Indian Kitchen'. "In India, we have a whole range of alternate ingredients available such as instead of saffron one can use the less expensive 'anatto', which is a colouring agent, and rather than using expensive cloves we can use its stem," he says.
Zee Khana Khazana's Amit Nair says this season of Kifayati Kitchen will have 39 episodes and it will be on air till February. "Our chefs in this show and also in other shows try to use less expensive and easy-to-get ingredients. We also suggest substitutes for fancy ingredients such as coco or tips like if you have to make your curry thick without using too much onion and tomatoes you can use corn starch," he says. Bal of Bachelor's Kitchen says usage of stems and other non-prime items of cauliflower and some green vegetables is a good way to reduce wastage. "Culturally, such practices are common in our country and can come in handy during such times."
Bal's favourite budget dish is pulao made out of leftover food and soup made from non-prime parts of vegetables.
That's the kind of skills that a lot of housewives would love to learn in these days.
In general, operators also need bandwidth for improving quality of services, said Hemant Joshi, partner, Deloitte Haskins & Sells.
New Delhi expects to get Rs 30,000-40,000 crore from the auctions and one-time spectrum fee proceeds, Sibal said. The government is desperate for cash to bridge its gaping fiscal deficit. It hopes to limit the deficit to 4.8% of gross domestic product for the fiscal year through March 31.
EGoM's decisions come after a sharp exchange between Trai and the telecom department (DoT) over the controversial issue of bandwidth pricing and auctions in the 800 Mhz band.
While Trai had suggested slashing by up to 60% the floor price of airwaves in the 900 MHz band and by about 37% in the 1800 MHz band, DoT wanted the prices to be raised by about 80% and 47%, respectively over what the regulator had suggested.
Telecom Commission, the highest decision-making body in DoT, finally agreed to prices which were 15% higher than what Trai suggested for the 1800 Mhz band, and 25% higher in the 900 Mhz band.
Trai and DoT were also split over auctions in the 800 Mhz band, with the former opposed to it and the latter in favour. Telecom Commission, and now EGoM, went with DoT's view.
Ashok Sud, president of AUSPI, the CDMA industry body, welcomed the move to auction bandwidth in the 800 Mhz band, but wanted that to be held simultaneously with the other two bands "so that some of our players that hold dual-technology licenses would know how much spectrum and in which bands can they bid".
Speaking to ET over phone, he said some of those dual-technology operators would be keen to bid in the 900 MHz band, and hence, if the 800 Mhz band auction were to happen later, "it may derail the entire auction process".
Companies such as Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices offer services on both the CDMA and GSM platforms.
Meanwhile, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India will submit much-awaited guidelines on spectrum trading to the Telecom Commission likely on January 15.
vijay kr yadav
pgdm sem-1
sou- times of india
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