New Delhi, Aug. 7 -- New Delhi: Your plate of idli, dosa, dal makhani or a pack of papad is unlikely to get much costlier this year despite concerns that the El Niño impact could fan food inflation by clipping the harvest of kharif crops, including these items' key input, urad. The government is confident India will have comfortable supplies of the key pulse as, unlike most crops of the season, urad sowing is higher than last year while imports from Myanmar and Brazil are also seen adequate, said two officials in the know.

The consumer affairs department expects stable urad supplies to keep a lid on inflation in its related food items.

Urad has emerged as an outlier this kharif season that has seen 13% shortfall in rainfall so far....