The draft Food Security Bill makes it compulsory for state governments to pay a food security allowance to targeted sections in case of failure to supply foodgrain through a sweeping welfare scheme targeted at nearly three-fourths of the population. The amount will be decided by the central government. The draft bill also presses for a radical overhaul of the food distribution system by giving incentives to independent agencies that procure...

-The Business Standard   India's 68% population may get legal right to subsidised food if the draft National Food Security bill prepared by the Food Ministry is approved by a panel of ministers at the forthcoming meeting. After analysing the recommendations of the National Advisory Committee (NAC) and Rangarajan Committee, the Food Ministry has prepared a draft bill, likely to be placed before the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on food next...

In a radical departure from official welfare norms, the draft Food Security Bill has made adult women heads of households selected for distribution of subsidised food grain. This highly unusual move for general welfare schemes wasn't part of the original discussions on the food bill. The bill has shaped into the big daddy, or in this case the big mummy, of all welfare schemes by providing free food to pregnant...

Good politics and good economics can make compatible bedfellows, if the timing is right. Food, its producers and consumers, are now the Centre's most potent political and economic battleground. Politically speaking, this could be the best time for the UPA to reclaim its dog-eared pro-people credentials through the Bill. The Right to Food Bill has triggered many apprehensions, including fears of a higher subsidy burden, an adverse impact on private...

-PTI   The government is likely to give a legal right to food to both priority and general categories of the population under the proposed National Food Security Act, as suggested by the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC). There were differences between the NAC and the Rangarajan Committee on giving a legal right to food to general category, or above poverty line (APL) families. While the NAC had suggested giving a legal...