-National Herald Odisha government made linking of Aadhaar with PDS compulsory for all beneficiaries; technological issues like low internet penetration contributing to humanitarian crisis After Jharkhand, now several hundreds of ration cardholders from three districts in Odisha have been denied their Public Distribution System (PDS) food grains for at least 60 days mostly on the basis of the failure of Aadhaar system. According to a survey conducted in three districts—Nabarangpur, Nuapada and Malkangiri—...

-Economic and Political Weekly The public Distribution system is the cornerstone of anti-poverty initiatives in India to address the issue of hunger and malnutrition, but is plagued with leakages and corruption. Though several possible reasons account for these problems, one factor that is generally overlooked is the lack of assessment of the preference of the beneficiaries in terms of product portfolio, selection, and delivery mechanisms. Through a mixed methods analysis across...

-The Tribune It’s a paradox that food-surplus India is ranked 102nd on Global Hunger Index This strange paradox of plenty remains unexplained. At a time when grain silos are bursting at the seams, the 2019 Global Hunger Index (GHI) has ranked India 102nd among 117 countries, placing it in a category with ‘serious’ levels of hunger. As if this is not enough, the latest UNICEF report on the State of World’s Children...

-The New Indian Express Odisha Millet Mission is a unique initiative for revival and promotion of millet production. BHUBANESWAR: With focus shifting to nutrition in food and nutrient-rich millets becoming a favourite food to fight malnutrition, agricultural experts and officials lauded the Millet Mission undertaken by the State Government to promote production, consumption and marketing of the grains. Inaugurating a national workshop on nutri-cereals here on Wednesday, Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy said Odisha...

-The Indian Express The main reason for rejecting the DCT (as opposed to DBT) option was the belief that paying market price for fertilisers upfront would result in additional financial burden. More than three-fourths of Indian farmers like the new system of fertiliser subsidy linked to sales made to them by retailers being registered on point-of-sale (PoS) machines. This so-called direct benefit transfer (DBT) system, wherein the subsidy to fertiliser companies...