High food prices prevented more than 19 million people in the Asia-Pacific region from lifting themselves out of poverty last year, the United Nations said in a new study released today, warning that soaring food and fuel inflation will keep large sections of the region’s population below the poverty threshold. The assessment by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) says that rising food prices can...
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Long way to go by PS Krishnan
Budget 2011-12 and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. THREE decades ago, in the early years of the Special Component Plan (SCP) for Scheduled Castes – very recently renamed inappropriately as Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan (SCSP) – Indira Gandhi on her return as Prime Minister wrote two historical D.O. letters dated March 12, 1980, one to Central Ministers and the other to State Chief Ministers, regarding the SCP in the Central...
More »Food subsidy bill to rise by 27 p.c. this year
The country’s food subsidy bill is expected to jump by 27 per cent to Rs 74,231 crore in the 2010—11 fiscal, the Lok Sabha was told today. This is due to a rise in support price and higher procurement and distribution of foodgrains via ratio shops. Last year, the government’s food subsidy bill stood at Rs 58,242.45 crore. “The amount allocated for food subsidy during 2010—11 is Rs 59,354.56 crore...Based on the actual...
More »Common concerns by Latha Jishnu
As the commons come under increasing assault, academics, practitioners and policymakers come together to devise ways to protect shared resources On a cold January night in Hyderabad, a fortnight ago, Jairam Ramesh, Minister for Environment and Forests, was led to an open-air dinner by folk drummers and body-painted tiger dancers as an appreciative audience of international academics and grassroots workers cheered and milled around him. Ramesh had become the toast of...
More »Kind to cash by Richard Mahapatra
The government has a plan to reach welfare to the poor without wasting money. It wants to put hard cash in their hands instead of spending on welfare programmes. To begin with, it wants to end the public distribution system of food grain and give money directly to the people. Its logic: the new system of cash transfer will plug leakages and save an enormous amount of money. But is it...
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