Enhanced food grains production and productivity in general, and in rain-fed areas in particular, would pave the way for an autonomous, decentralised PDS which should be the goal of public policy in India's march to food and nutrition security, the former secretary said. "We need to build on some of the existing programmes through an appropriate strategy for increased agricultural production, with a new emphasis on dryland agriculture," Venugopal said....

Supreme Court questions the norms and method adopted by Centre to identify such families The Supreme Court on Tuesday questioned the norms and method adopted by the Centre in identifying below the poverty line (BPL) families, as the figures furnished by it and the States were at variance and the State governments had complained of inadequate supply of foodgrains. Earlier, senior counsel Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the People's Union for Civil Liberties,...

Eliminating hunger from the State seems a distant possibility if the results of the latest survey report ‘Millennium Development Goals - A status report on Orissa’ are any indication. The survey found a high of 43 per cent families in the State don’t have ration card at all. Significantly, it reveals that more than half of the beneficiaries (52 per cent), who avail the Antyodaya Anna Yojana, fail to receive the...

With more than 400 million Indians going to bed hungry each day, food security has become a crucial issue. On June 4 last year, the president made an announcement: “My government proposes to enact a new law — the National Food Security Act — that will provide statutory basis for a framework which assures food security for all. Every family below the poverty line in rural as well as urban...

When we have policies trample on people's rights, and people go to courts seeking redress, what should the courts do, Prime Minister? Dear Prime Minister, I was delighted to learn that you said, while also “respectfully” ticking off the Supreme Court, that tackling food, rotting grain etc., — are all policy matters. You are absolutely right and it was time somebody said so. With that, you brought a whiff of honesty so...