THE government is planning to transfer food entitlements to ration-card holders through an electronic system, once the public distribution system (PDS) is linked to the unique ID, or Aadhar’s central data repository. This would enable state governments to directly tell residents—who will have to have an online account linked to Aadhar—about their entitlements, a discussion paper with the Unique ID Authority points out. Entitlement details would be updated monthly through...

The finance ministry is planning to change the face of banking in the Red corridors at the tribal heartlands of India. The move is part of the government decision to redraw its law and order management and development plans in view of the growing Naxalite menace threatening the Indian state. As the banks, like any other government institutions bear the brunt of Naxalite terror, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is mooting the...

The radicals in the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) are unlikely to give in to the conservatives’ case against the universalisation of food subsidy. They insisted that not only was universalisation theoretically possible but it also worked “successfully” on the ground. In what could make the Centre squirm, they cited BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh as an example of what an inclusive public distribution system (PDS) could do. An indication that the NAC’s radicals were...

Every year, India adds the population of Australia to its already staggering ranks of 116.1 crore people. Every 10 years, we add the population of Brazil — the fifth most populous country in the world. As yet another World Population Day comes around on July 11, and India stands poised to eclipse China as the most populous country of the world, the government is gingerly attempting to bring incentive-based family planning...

The planned National Food Security Act represents a unique opportunity to achieve gains with respect to the public distribution system. However, the current draft is a non-starter. When I first visited Surguja district in Chhattisgarh nearly 10 years ago, it was one of those areas where the Public Distribution System (PDS) was virtually non-functional. I felt constrained to write, at that time, that “the whole system looks like it has been...