Increase in offtake under various public distribution schemes. Supply of wheat and rice will have to be doubled if the proposed National Food Security Act for targeted beneficiaries is implemented with the current delivery mechanism, in which leakages are too high, the Economic Survey for 2010-11 has said. “Once we give a legal guarantee to people about the food that they are to receive, if we try to deliver on this promise...

There is no provision for the proposed National Food Security Bill in the budget proposals for 2011-12. The Bill will necessarily enhance the food subsidy as wheat and rice are to be made available at Rs.2 and Rs.3 a kg to the beneficiaries, but the budget does not reflect this. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee did make an announcement about bringing to Parliament the Bill “during the course of this year” but did...

The Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council (NAC) has managed to have its way on key demands on the food security bill. Bolstered by the Congress president’s “resolve”, the panel will go ahead and draft its own version of the bill and hope that Sonia’s veto will persuade the Centre to discard its stated objections and adopt the NAC’s draft as law. “Yeh tho hona hi hai,” Sonia reportedly said. A panel member...

The Economic Survey has been silent on the proposed National Food Security Bill and the projections of foodgrains needed to provide food security to citizens. The chapter on Agriculture and Food Management talks of supply-side constraints, the need to feed a growing population, the procurement and off take of foodgrains, buffer stocks of foodgrains, food subsidy, the targeted public distribution system (TPDS), and the central issue price (CIP) of foodgrains, but...

Although finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had promised food security and inclusive growth in his budget speech last year, hunger continues to stalk over 300 million citizens of the country. India slipped to 67th place in the Global Hunger Index 2010 rankings of 122 countries prepared by International Food Policy Research Institute. An Oxford University report said that 410 million Indians live in poverty. While there may be nit-picking over the...