-The Indian Express The gap between the current and year-ago stocks, too, has narrowed down from over 15 mt to 1.5 mt between June 1 and October 1. Covid-19 may have unleashed all-round economic devastation, but has also turned into an opportunity for whittling down the Food Corporation of India’s (FCI) massive grain mountain. At 68.49 million tonnes (mt), the total wheat and rice stocks in the Central pool as on October 1...
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What India’s farm reforms aim to change, in three charts -Arjun Srinivas and howindialives.com
-Livemint.com Wide disparities in agri-marketing regulations have resulted in fragmented markets across states. The new farm bills aim to change this but the jury is still out on whether it will have the intended impact. On 26 September, government procurement of food crops commenced across the country, five days in advance, following the enactment of three contentious farm bills. Under the new policy regime, farmers need not sell their produce through designated...
More »Poorest households most in need often left out of PDS, finds study -Jagriti Chandra
-The Hindu Analysis of NFHS-4 data finds skewed Distribution of BPL cards that provide access to various welfare schemes, including food ration A first-ever study on the linkages between the availability of PDS (public Distribution system) ration and the prevalence of malnutrition finds that the poorest households most in need of free food grains are often left out of the scheme. The study is authored by Basant K. Panda, Sanjay K. Mohanty, Itishree...
More »Farm Acts – unwanted constitutional adventurism -R Ramakumar
-The Hindu There is a case to argue that the three Acts have poor legal validity, may be unconstitutional and weaken federalism The passage of the three Farm Acts by Parliament has led to a constitutional debate. These Acts are: the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020....
More »A fiscal crisis: Why FCI needs provisioning in food subsidy budget -Sandip Das
-Down to Earth Mounting expenses, under-provisioning of food subsidy budget leading to a huge debt is highly worrisome A fiscal crisis has been brewing in the last few years. Mounting food subsidy arrears — payable to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) due to ‘under-provisioning’ of food subsidy expenses in successive union budgets — has forced FCI to take loans to finance its operations. FCI is the central agency that manages procurement, storage...
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