-The Times of India NEW DELHI: UPA is going to town for having delivered on its promise of food security. But, come December and this promise would fall flat as many government schools are likely to go without midday meal (MDM). The reason: the food ministry's new missive to the HRD ministry that like other food schemes, MDM would also have to make pre-payment before lifting foodgrains from Food Corporation of India...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Referred to die -Sayantan Bera
-Down to Earth Infant deaths in West Bengal’s only super specialty hospital underscrore an urgent need to improve healthcare facilities in rural areas SUPER SPECIALTY B C Roy Children’s Hospital in Kolkata looks like a refugee camp. A sit-out for families inside the complex is roofed with plastic in bright shades of blue, red and green. The sheets protect families from the regular monsoon downpour. The not-so-lucky ones huddle under buildings when...
More »India's food security act: Myths and reality-Vandana Shiva
-Al Jazeera The reforms promoted by Prime Minister Singh do not go far enough to help food production and the hungry. The debate on the Food Security Act is based on myths on both sides. The government is propagating the myth that it is the largest anti-poverty and anti-hunger programme ever introduced anywhere in the world. The programme is being heralded as Sonia Gandhi's dream project, and billed as a miracle solution...
More »Doing a number on FSB-Ashok Kotwal, Milind Murugkar and Bharat Ramaswami
-The Financial Express In an article published in this newspaper on September 4, 2013, Surjit Bhalla takes us to task for critiquing his earlier estimates of the cost of the Food Security Bill. Bhalla asserted that subsidy expenditures would more than triple and the FSB would cost the government R3,14,000 crore annually or 3% of GDP. We argued that Bhalla was barking up the wrong tree and that the main things...
More »Correct costs of the Food Security Bill-Bharat Ramaswami, Milind Murugkar and Ashok Kotwal
-The Financial Express Food Security Bill will raise the subsidy burden by 18%. The debate should be about the rise in costs of households due to leakages in PDS and price hike of other nutritious food items, and how these costs can be minimised by DBT In a recent article, Surjit Bhalla ("Manmonia's FSB: 3% of GDP", July 6, Financial Express-http://goo.gl/qoIbd3) has asserted that the Food Security Bill will cost 3% of...
More »