India’s decision-makers seem to find it difficult to see that there are children in the country. Being unable to see them, they are unable to perceive that they are hungry. In an age when we are able to use euphemisms like ‘under-nutrition’, this is perhaps not surprising. But it is disgraceful none the less.   This country has a large population of children. Fortyone per cent of its total numbers. The national...

-The Hindu   ‘The argument that too many people are coming forward to claim benefits is flawed' Aadhaar, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) project, cannot “fix” all that is wrong with the Public Distribution System, Abhijit Sen, member of the Planning Commission, said here on Saturday. The biometric identification and authentication project has been touted by the Planning Commission as a panacea for all issues that plague the Public Distribution System (PDS),...

The government is planning to come up with a price protection fund to cushion the burden of food subsidy, which is expected to grow manifold under the new Food Security Bill. The proposed fund, under the ministry of food and consumer affairs, is a Budget proposal for 2012-13. Officials said the framework of the fund was at a nascent stage. “Some inferences are being drawn from the recommendation of National Farmers’ Commission...

How economically sustainable is food subsidy? The cost could even be double of what the government estimates Food deprivation and malnutrition are completely unacceptable and everything has to be done to eliminate such an evil. The prevalence of malnutrition in a country like India is in itself a cause for serious concern since malnourished children may jeopardise India’s favourable demographic dividend (as per independent estimates, close to 60 per cent of...

Even as the Centre prepares to implement its proposed national Food Security Act, States have expressed their unhappiness about the contours of the Bill, particularly the cap on the number of beneficiaries which will automatically reduce their allocation of subsidised foodgrains. Requirement of funds, more foodgrains for distribution under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), and paucity of storage capacity was a common refrain during the two-day conference of State Food...