-PTI Ahmedabad: Gujarat government today started implementation of National Food Security Act (NFSA), state cabinet minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama said. The scheme, however, will be officially launched on April 6 by Chief Minister Ananiben Patel, Chudasama, the Gujarat Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer affairs minister, said. "Under the scheme, we will cover around 3.40 crore eligible citizens who will be given food grains at subsidised rates through our Public Distribution System (PDS) shops. The...

-Livemint.com With global population set to hit 11 bn by 2100, gene banks are vital links in a chain of steps needed to avert hunger New Delhi: From the outside, the tapering building in classic brick red and cream standing by a quiet stretch of road in west Delhi has the unmistakable look of a government office block, an impression reinforced by its manicured lawns and the acronym NBPGR embossed at...

-TheWire.in The current policies and systems of implementation result in heavy losses and are a huge disservice to farmers and consumers. Former prime minister Manmohan Singh once remarked in an interview that “we are a democracy but we are also an indisciplined democracy.” I think he was referring to our bad habit of not putting our house in order till things don’t get completely out of hand. This propensity is shown by our...

-Livemint.com Only Chhattisgarh and Odisha have shown extraordinary success in making public distribution system work efficiently and equitably Across thousands of schools in India, expensive computers, printers and scanners are gathering dust. In many panchayats and other local bodies, such hardwares remain unused. Meanwhile, tonnes of government orders and circulars continue to be scanned and uploaded on official websites, which serve absolutely no purpose to anyone. Computerization, digitization and automation are often seen...

-Hindustan Times The government should pay 25% of wages of MGNREGA workers employed in individual farms and the poor should get an option to choose between money or subsidised food grains under the public distribution system (PDS). These are a few suggestions to be made by the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog in the occasional paper that will be discussed with the states for framing a national policy to eliminate...