In pushing for a greatly truncated PDS, the Food Security Bill proposed by the NAC, which has many right-to-food activists, undermines the PDS itself. ENSURING food security was the big promise of United Progressive Alliance-2. The promise to enact legislation to ensure a minimum quantity of affordable food to all poor households in the country was part of the election manifesto of the Congress party that leads the government. The 100-day...
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Rotting grain 6 times more than Govt claimed by Samar Halarnkar and Bhadra Sinha
After insisting in Parliament and elsewhere that the amount of rotting food grain revealed by the Hindustan Times was “exaggerated”, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Sharad Pawar’s own ministry has proven him wrong. Nearly 40 days ago, this paper first reported how 50,000 tonnes of grain had decayed in Punjab alone and 17.8 million tonnes, or as much as France consumes in a month, was at risk from rotting. Pawar and his...
More »Reforms helped UP Dalits, says study by Pallavi Singh
Economic liberalization since the 1990s has helped Dalits in Uttar Pradesh (UP) overcome caste inequalities, according to a research paper that argues against the view that reforms have exacerbated such disparities. The study by Devesh Kapur, Chandra Bhan Prasad, Lant Pritchett and Shyam Babu titled “Rethinking Inequality: Dalits in Uttar Pradesh in the Market Reform Era”, and excerpted last week in the Economic and Political Weekly, finds significant changes in patterns...
More »Inform us of steps to preserve grain: court
The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Union government to inform it of the steps taken to preserve the remaining grain procured. Hearing a petition filed by the People's Union for Civil Liberties relating to the streamlining of the PDS, a Bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma, quoting the court commissioner's report, said 50,000 tonnes of wheat had deteriorated, and was not fit for consumption, and several lakhs of...
More »Calories, prices and incomes by Raghav Gaiha, Raghbendra Jha and Vani S Kulkarni
Various recent studies point to a puzzle. Despite rising incomes, there has been a sustained decline in per capita calorie intake. In an important contribution , A Deaton and J Dreze (‘ Food and Nutrition in India: Facts and Interpretations’ , Economic and Political Weekly, XLIV (7), 2009) offer a detailed analysis of the decline in calorie intake in 1983-2004 . Average calorie consumption was about 10% lower in rural...
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