KEY TRENDS   • During 2014-15, while procurement of foodgrains (rice and wheat) increased from 56.9 million tonnes to 60.2 million tonnes, offtake of foodgrains (rice and wheat) from the PDS decreased from 59.8 million tonnes to 55.9 million tonnes. Despite increased availability in the PDS and prevalence of high inflation in foodgrains, dependence on the PDS is reducing, suggesting that there may be issues of availability, timely availability and quality of the PDS foodgrains...

‘No mechanism to protect the poor’ IN a period characterised by all-round price rise, the issue of food security assumes extreme significance, especially for the rural and urban poor. At a time when the need for a universal public distribution system is increasingly felt, the government’s categorisation of a very small percentage of the people as being below the poverty line and eligible for rations has invited a lot of...

-TheWire.in A Centre for Policy Research ground report points to a mass hunger crisis among migrant workers in Delhi post-COVID-19 lockdown. It highlights the current disconnect between the government’s well-meaning responses to the crisis of hunger and health among the most vulnerable populations. The much-awaited relief package for the poor announced by the Union finance minister on March 26 in the wake of the COVID-19 related lockdown in the country has entirely...