The government has decided to discontinue Bharat brand products as prices of essential food items such as wheat, rice and pulses have stabilised, with food inflation falling to 1.78% in April from 8.7% a year ago.With this, the Centre has made the Bharat brand, a label it launched in 2023 to provide food grains and other essential food items to the middle class at subsidised prices, a periodic tool for price stabilisation instead of a perennial product."We have decided to discontinue the Bharat brand products as prices of all major food items have come down because of increase in production," said a senior government official from the consumer affairs, food and public distribution ministry, who did not wish to be identified.Retail stores owned by government agencies - National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) and National Cooperative Consumers' Federation of India (NCCF) - have stopped selling Bharat Atta, Bharat Rice and Bharat dals in their stores.India has produced record rice, wheat and maize in the 2024-25 kharif season, according to the agriculture and farmers' welfare ministry's second advance estimates of production of major agricultural crops. Production of major pulses - tur, gram and lentils - has also gone up compared to the previous season, bringing prices under control.The forecast of a good monsoon during the June-September period has led to expectations of a robust production which will help keep prices under check. "There does not seem to be an immediate need to sell food at subsidised prices," the official said.The cost of home-cooked vegetarian and non-vegetarian thalis declined by about 6% each year-on-year in May, said ratings agency Crisil in its latest 'Roti Rice Rate' report. However, there is a possibility of launching the next phase of the brand in case prices go up in the future or if the government's procurement of a certain item increases, the official said.
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