-The Economic Times India's GDP growth has almost halved from 9.2% in 2010-11 to 5% in 2012-12. Major problems include a high current account deficit, high fiscal deficit, and lack of bank credit for small and medium enterprises. All three problems can be mitigated substantially by one single measure - reducing excess food stocks. So say Ashok Gulati and Surabhi Jain, chairman and joint director respectively of the Commission for Agricultural...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Food scheme to widen net -Ambika Pandit
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Delhi's homeless may be brought under the fold of the Delhi government's flagship Annshree Yojana as the government is having trouble finding eligible beneficiaries to meet the two lakh target set under the cash for food scheme. So far limited to vulnerable households identified by a survey of 2008-2010, the scheme will now be made "broad based". Under the scheme, a monthly subsidy of Rs 600...
More »What we need is not a food security Bill but a hunger elimination Act -Arvind Virmani
-The Times of India In the decade or so that i was at the Planning Commission, i always had advisory responsibility for the food ministry/Public Distribution System, among other issues of development policy. It did not take very long to find out that the fundamental problem with the system was about so-called "leakages" abetted by corruption: One soon learnt that the Food Corporation of India (FCI) was one of the most...
More »Food Bill in a political quagmire-Gargi Parsai
-The Hindu The promise of near-universal coverage is now nowhere in sight. And the UPA's seemingly fretful efforts to get the measure through do not appear to be convincing The nation is watching with trepidation the play of politics over the National Food Security Bill, which envisages food security for 67 per cent of the population by providing 5 kg of rice, wheat or coarse cereals per person per month at subsidised...
More »Govt plans tie-up with postal department for Annshree Yojana -Ambika Pandit
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Eager to make an impact on the electorate by expediting enrolments under its flagship cash-for-food programme Annshree Yojana, the Delhi government is exploring the option of tying up with the postal department to speed up opening of Aadhaar-enabled, zero-balance accounts for beneficiaries from economically weaker sections not covered by the Public Distribution System. A total of 45,000 beneficiaries have been enrolled under the scheme launched in...
More »