-The Hindu An odd job that was going to earn her some extra money happened to turn 23-year-old Aarthi Jaiswal into a voice for her neighbourhood in Jahangirpuri here. A few months ago she and a group of her friends were hired for Rs.150 per day to conduct a house-to-house survey asking for people’s opinion on the Delhi Government’s proposal to replace the public distribution system with direct cash transfers into...

No place to store seven million tonnes of procured Foodgrains As the monsoons advance, the food ministry is desperately looking for shelters. On June 21, KV Thomas, the Union food minister, admitted what many feared the past two months. Nearly seven million tonnes of Foodgrains procured by the government in the current season may perish due to non-availability of storage space. This is 50 per cent more than Uttar Pradesh's total...

Several studies in India have shown that more than 40 per cent of foodgrain meant for the poor is pilfered on the way. In order to ensure that food reaches the needy and the hungry across the country, the government has launched a series of steps to streamline the public distribution system (PDS). Among several initiatives being planned, especially in the light of the National Food Security Act under preparation, a...

-PTI Faced with acute shortage of storage capacity, the Centre today asked states to lift PDS Foodgrains needed for at least six months and build intermediate godowns to ease pressure on Food Corporation of India godowns. "We have requested state governments to offtake at least six months of Foodgrains needed for PDS. Our storage capacity of FCI is 64 million tonnes and our present stock is about 82-83 million tonnes," Minister of...

Social protection has seen a sharp focus in the development policy agenda during the past decade. There is also a clear trend for making social protection, as well as food security, “rights-based”, rather than “discretionary”. Yet, no clear consensus has so far emerged concerning many basic design choices and implementation modalities. The Food Security Act 2011, which is now under the consideration of our parliament, is designed to achieve the...