-The Times of India An SMS alert that tells the position of stocks in ration shops. A front-to-back computerization tracking food grain movement from procurement to rations shops. And a swipe card to allow BPL users to access subsidized food grain. A two-stage Rs 4,200 crore recast of India's notoriously leaky public distribution system (PDS) is likely to considered by the Cabinet on Monday along with a Rs 1.25 lakh crore expansion...

Union minister for consumer affairs, food and public distribution KV Thomas tells Nitin Sethi that it makes better sense to distribute stocked foodgrain to people of the country than subsidise exports. Possible spread of drought that the government is looking at... At the moment, monsoon rainfall is 23% below the long term average. But we have to wait another 15 days to know the full situation. We had discussion in the presence...

-ANI Food Minister K.V. Thomas on Wednesday said that the proposed National Food Security Bill marks a paradigm shift in addressing the problem of food security - from it being viewed as a welfare approach to a right-based approach. Launching the bulletin on food justice in India brought out by the Oxfam India, the institute of development studies and the centre for legislative research and advocacy here, Thomas said: "The Act seeks...

RANWAN, India — In this north Indian village, workers recently dismantled stacks of burned and mildewed rice while flies swarmed nearby over spoiled wheat. Local residents said the rice crop had been sitting along the side of a highway for several years and was now being sent to a distillery to be turned into liquor. Just 180 miles to the south, in a slum on the outskirts of New Delhi, Leela...

-Live Mint After a record harvest of 90.23 mt this year, the govt’s wheat stocks were at 38.2 mt as of 1 May Worry lines run deep on the faces of wheat farmers in Sehrala in Haryana as falling prices, higher input costs and poor infrastructure erode earnings and cast doubt over not just their next crop, but their future in agriculture as well. Agents in the grain market of Ballabgarh said spot...