-The Telegraph Jean Dreze claims that in the case of PDS, condition of Chhattisgarh and Odisha is better than Jharkhand Jamshedpur: Economist Jean Dreze said on Friday that not even 70 per cent of public distribution system (PDS) beneficiaries in Jharkhand have been receiving foodgrains after the Covid-19 pandemic. The Belgian economist, social scientist and activist painted a dismal picture of the public distribution system in the state while addressing a workshop on...

-The Hindu Expanding PDS coverage to account for the increase in population since 2011 is a no-brainer; the Government’s resistance to implementing a Supreme Court of India direction is baffling The National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, through the Public Distribution System (PDS), provides a crucial safety net for roughly 800 million people. Even critics of the PDS appreciated its services during the COVID-19 lockdown. The humanitarian crisis resulting from the COVID-19 lockdown,...

-Hindustan Times India ranked 107th out of 121 assessed countries on the 2022 Global Hunger Index (GHI). Although there are some measurement issues in the GHI, the report says there is high malnutrition in India due to rice-wheat biased policies. Malnutrition in India manifests itself in terms of triple burden – underweight especially among poor, hidden hunger (deficiency in micronutrients), and overweight. The National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA) was introduced to...

-The Telegraph Villagers from far-flung blocks take part in agitation organised under the aegis of Khadya Suraksha Jan Adhikar Manch Jamshedpur: Nearly 2,000 villagers from different blocks of Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum district staged a dharna at the district headquarters to protest the “theft” of foodgrains in violation of the National Food Security Act (NFSA). Villagers from far-flung blocks like Sadar, Tonto, Khuntpani, Tantnagar, Chakradharpur, Sonua, Hatgamharia, Kumardungi and Manoharpur took part in the...

-The Telegraph At present, India has 195 million households with ration cards (nearly 794 million people), lower than the beneficiaries we intended to target in 2013 Inordinate delays in carrying out the census exercise are depriving millions of Indians who rely on rations for their subsistence. The exclusion of the poorest from the public distribution system in the pre and post-pandemic years was first flagged by the economists, Jean Drèze and Reetika...