In a radical departure from official welfare norms, the draft food security bill has made adult women heads of households selected for distribution of subsidised food grain. This highly unusual move for general welfare schemes wasn't part of the original discussions on the food bill. The bill has shaped into the big daddy, or in this case the big mummy, of all welfare schemes by providing free food to pregnant...

-The Business Standard   India's 68% population may get legal right to subsidised food if the draft National food security bill prepared by the Food Ministry is approved by a panel of ministers at the forthcoming meeting. After analysing the recommendations of the National Advisory Committee (NAC) and Rangarajan Committee, the Food Ministry has prepared a draft bill, likely to be placed before the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on food next...

Every day, through scorching summers and chilly winters, Himmat pedals his bicycle rickshaw through New Delhi's crowded streets, earning barely enough to feed his family. But to India's government he is not poor – not even close. The 5,000 rupees ($110) he earns a month pays for a tiny room with a single light bulb and no running water for his family of four. After buying just enough food to keep...

Unpaid bills of Rs 17,000 crore — and growing — have revealed hidden food subsidies and acute financial mismanagement as the government prepares to adopt the costliest, most ambitious legislation of its tenure. Documents accessed by Hindustan Times reveal this is the money the government now owes the state-run Food Corporation of India (FCI), hampering its mammoth operation of buying grain from the farmer, storing it and selling it cheaply...

-PTI   The government is likely to give a legal right to food to both priority and general categories of the population under the proposed National Food Security Act, as suggested by the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC). There were differences between the NAC and the Rangarajan Committee on giving a legal right to food to general category, or above poverty line (APL) families. While the NAC had suggested giving a legal...