The member of the Planning Commission Abhijit Sen said that it was necessary at this stage for the government to strengthen the public distribution system (PDS) in the country and bring under its net a number of essential commodities. He said that at present that the government's policy was to attempt insulation of domestic prices from high world prices by combining a number of different measures including high subsidies, lower tariffs and export restrictions, some of which have been implemented. "Moreover, since inflationary outcomes depend quite critically on the way inflationary expectations build up, there is considerable, although sometimes exaggerated concern with steps designed to show that the government is acting to curb such expectations,' he said. Sen who is a noted economist and chairman of the expert panel on futures trading also said that since futures Markets can be a source of domestic price expectations, these were not immune to similar treatment. "In view of the inconclusive findings of our panel on whether futures trading has fuelled increase or volatility in the prices of agricultural commodities, it is not possible to rule this out entirely,' he said. He urged for avoiding "disruptive go-stop responses' that neither serve the public purpose nor the growth of Markets. He said that the government should take a clear position regarding essential commodities, particularly foodgrains, where it has a large involvement in physical trade. Both literature on futures trading and empirical facts analysed by the expert panel suggest that there were inherent difficulties if future Markets were introduced for commodities where government was actively involved in trade and influences prices, he said. "Although in the longer run there are possible benefits from combining futures based options with minimum support price (MSP) operations as suggested in our panel report, it is clearly necessary in the immediate inflationary situation that there be a clear statement of the government's intent to maintain and expand the current system of public procurement and PDS in order to ensure remunerative prices to farmers and affordable prices to consumers,' Sen said. Sen has favoured continuation of the ban on futures trading in wheat, rice, urad and tur while in the case of futures trading in sugar and edible oils a decision should be taken in consultations with stakeholders. Regarding global price rise situation, Sen quoted the views of farmers and trade associations at the recent Agricultural Forum convened by US Commodities Futures Trading Commission which blamed that speculative surge from long-only funds for the situation.