-The Indian Express MEA has been asked to provide details of the allowance to refugees to ascertain if they could be brought under food security The Union Law Ministry's opinion is that the food security legislation covers not just Indians but also foreign nationals and refugees. The ministry's legal affairs department gave this opinion in the backdrop of a 2012 petition by the Mool Pravah Akhil Bharat Nepal Ekta Samaj, saying that "the...
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Food subsidy can fill poverty gap, twice-Puja Mehra
-The Hindu Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram's estimate for India's 2014-15 food subsidy bill of Rs 1,15,000 crore in the interim budget is more than twice of India's Poverty Gap, or the cost of pushing all households above the poverty line if cash transfers were used instead. The Poverty Gap for India, as per the latest NSSO Consumption Expenditure Survey data available (for the year 2011-12) is Rs. 55,744 crore. A...
More »National Food Security Act a landmark legislation, says IMF
-PTI WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund today described India's National Food Security Act as a landmark legislation which is an important effort to ensure that a majority of the population has access to adequate quantities of food at affordable prices. "The legislation is a landmark, representing the largest food security programme in the world, involving the distribution of subsidised grain to two-thirds of India's population of 1.2 billion," the IMF said in...
More »Spending on subsidies surged, education and health lagged during 10 years of UPA -Sidhartha
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: When finance minister P Chidambaram presents his first interim budget on Monday, he is expected to devote a significant chunk of his speech - which may be between 12 and 18 pages - to UPA government's spending on social sector schemes, especially health, education and rural development. But what is probably going to slip through is the fact that these sectors actually witnessed a comparatively...
More »Cannot Revise BPL Criteria Unilaterally: Gujarat Govt
-Outlook Gujarat government today clarified that it had not issued any new guidelines for identification of Below Poverty Line families, saying it could not take such a step unilaterally without involving the Centre. Reacting to a media report which claimed that the Gujarat government had come up with new criteria for identification of BPL families, the state's Food and Civil Supplies Secretary RP Gupta said that they had merely reiterated the guidelines...
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