-IndiaSpend.com To fight hunger and distress due to the pandemic, India must universalise foodgrain distribution, expand the food basket in its rations scheme and provide cash transfers, activist Anjali Bhardwaj tells us in this interview Bengaluru: The pandemic-induced lockdowns have had a profound impact on livelihoods, affecting poor Indians' food intake, studies show. In October 2020, more than half the respondents of a Hunger Survey said their rice/wheat consumption had declined during...
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The inadequate food safety net -CP Chandrasekhar and Jayati Ghosh
-The Hindu Business Line/ NetworkIdeas.org With India experiencing a severe second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, forcing decentralized lockdowns, a crisis of loss of jobs and livelihoods and resulting hunger is being reported from across the country. A reluctant central government has, therefore, been forced to revive the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY), to distribute 5 kilograms of free foodgrain per person per month to the approximately 80 crore...
More »Invisible in the pandemic fires, a slow burn of hunger and distress across India -Supriya Sharma
-Scroll.in As lockdowns get extended in cities, the working-class is back to cutting down on food. This time, there are no community kitchens to fall back on. Sanju Devi stood wearily, clutching a cloth bag outside a ration shop. It had been a month since Delhi had gone under lockdown to contain a deadly surge of coronavirus cases and over three weeks since the prime minister had announced extra foodgrains for two...
More »Once Again, the Centre Has Excess Wheat, Rice Stocks. What Are Its Options? -Siraj Hussain and Jugal Mohapatra
-TheWire.in Last year when the lockdown was imposed the excess stocks came in handy. But, this time around, a full-scale lockdown is unlikely, leaving the government with only four options, with each having pros and cons. While the government is busy with assembly elections in Assam, Puducherry, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, India’s farmers have been waiting patiently on the borders of Delhi for the repeal of three farm laws. In the...
More »Challenge for Food Corporation of India: Rising stocks, cost, & push to procure -Harish Damodaran
-The Indian Express At the projected economic cost of Rs 29.94/kg for wheat and Rs 42.94/kg for rice, the corresponding per-kg PDS consumer subsidy in the coming fiscal would work out to Rs 27.94 and Rs 39.94, respectively. The Food Corporation of India’s (FCI) “economic cost” of wheat sold through the public distribution system (PDS) is budgeted to go up to Rs 29.94 per kg and that of rice to Rs 42.94...
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