Tribal-dominated Raygada district in Orissa on Wednesday became the first district in the country to have biometric rations cards and bar-coded ration cards for its million plus population. Designed jointly by the state government and the World Food Programme (WFP), the hi-tech biometric registration system aims to ensure that subsidised food goes only to those entitled to it. The district has been chosen as a pilot district by the World Food...
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That Growth Tangle
India's growth story in a crisis-hit world has been globally applauded. Still, the prime minister did well not to use his Independence Day address as a mere occasion for back-patting. This isn't yet "new India" where growth's gains percolate to every citizen. Not only must structural nuts and bolts be fixed before we get there, the economic blueprint itself needs a sharper reformist orientation. To its credit, the UPA has...
More »A very hungry nation by Rukmini Shrinivasan
Independent India's greatest failing must be its inability to feed its people. With 42 per cent of all children malnourished, 56 per cent of women anaemic, and the country ranked 65th out of 84 countries on the Global Hunger Index, the report card of the state on nutrition must have an F. Most disturbing is the fact that things have got worse over time. In the first half of the...
More »Arunachal CM stresses on PDS, hill transport subsidy
Streamlining the PDS is a priority of the Arunachal Pradesh government and it has taken up with the Centre for early release of funds against bills for hill transport subsidy held back for more than five years, Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu said on Sunday. Unfurling the National Tricolour on the 64th Independence Day, Khandu said the state required Rs 200 crore a year as hill transport subsidy for reaching PDS...
More »Threat to a system by CP Chandrasekhar
The National Advisory Council's move to restrict universalisation of the PDS to the most disadvantaged districts may ultimately end up limiting its impact. RECENT weeks have seen rather contradictory statements on the challenge of ensuring food security and the set of feasible initiatives for managing the food economy. To start with, the National Advisory Council (NAC), which recognises the need for a universal public distribution system (PDS), and which was expected to...
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