-PTI/ Business Standard "We have written to states that the government wants to bring private sector in the procurement process besides FCI and state agencies," food secretary Sudhanshu Pandey said. The Centre will soon invite private players along with Food Corporation of India and other state agencies to procure Foodgrains for buffer stock, food secretary Sudhanshu Pandey said on Monday. He informed that the Union food ministry has already written to all the...

-The Telegraph At present, India has 195 million households with ration cards (nearly 794 million people), lower than the beneficiaries we intended to target in 2013 Inordinate delays in carrying out the census exercise are depriving millions of Indians who rely on rations for their subsistence. The exclusion of the poorest from the public distribution system in the pre and post-pandemic years was first flagged by the economists, Jean Drèze and Reetika...

-Business Standard While the production of Foodgrains and the financial position of the government are important points, electoral compulsion may become the deciding factor for the survival of this scheme A sharp drawdown in India’s wheat inventory exacerbated by a fear of a fall in rice production due to drought-like conditions in the main growing states has raised questions on the government’s ability to sustain the free Foodgrains distribution scheme beyond its...

-The Hindu Business Line Wheat stocks already low due to low production, concerns mounting about dip in paddy sowing Rice and wheat stock in the Central Pool, managed by the Food Corporation of India (FCI), is at a five-year low, mainly due to lower procurement of wheat. Rice stock, though above 2020 level, may deplete fast in case there is a drop in production during current kharif season as paddy transplanting has...

Is India going to face inflation in cereal prices during the rest of the current financial year? Experts differ on this. An analysis by Nomura Global Economics and CEIC finds that a below normal monsoon does not always translate into high retail inflation in food. Similarly, an above normal southwest monsoon does not always bring down the rate of food inflation. However, some agricultural experts (please click here, here and...