Last week, a group of 40 economists wrote an open letter to United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi arguing for cash transfer as a mode of delivery for the proposed National Food Security Act (NFSA). The letter was carried in detail in several newspapers including Mint. The good thing is that there is now almost a consensus, at least among economists, that whatever be the mode of delivery of subsidy,...
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Food bill does a balancing act by Zia Haq and Prasad Nichenametla
The food ministry has prepared a new food security bill, reworking an earlier version and reconciling what had been “promised to the people” by the ruling Congress and the government’s fiscal constraints, MoS for agriculture KV Thomas has told HT. In August last year, the UPA government had pulled the plug on a previous draft, after it was found wanting by the Congress leadership. The Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council, which oversees...
More »NAC draft Food Bill: PDS gets legal backing & eminent panel by Ravish Tiwari
In the season of draft Bills, the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council has come out with its draft of the National Food Security Act, 2011, that gives legal backing to the highly leaky PDS system, thereby excluding innovative options like cash transfers, which may have included variants like food stamps and UID-linked smart cards. Despite the PM’s panel objecting to universal legal entitlement, the draft says that “not less than 90%...
More »NAC sticks to old stand on rural coverage under food Bill by Sanjeeb Mukherjee
Differences between United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Chairperson Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) and the government over the coverage of the proposed Food Security Act refuses to die. NAC recently came out with its own draft on the Food Security Bill sticking to its position after the food ministry’s draft diluted the Council’s recommendations on coverage of families in rural areas. The NAC draft has maintained the coverage of 90 per...
More »Arrest this chaos
-The Indian Express It may be too early to take stock of the repercussions and political costs of the midnight round-up of yoga guru Ramdev and his followers from the Ramlila Maidan in Delhi — though the Congress must surely be conscious of the momentum its missteps have acquired. The chaos engendered is obvious. The first thing that the Central government must now do is call a session of Parliament....
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