-The Business Standard Food security should not be treated as a political ploy The government's rush to push through food security legislation as an ordinance, instead of waiting the few weeks till the next Parliament session, is disturbing. There continue to be several major problems with the food security scheme that deserve to be more thoroughly discussed at the highest level of law making than they have been so far. Nobody can...

-The Economic Times MUMBAI: The Union Cabinet this week passed an ordinance to implement the National food security bill (NFSB). The bill guarantees legal entitlement of food grains at a subsidised price to ~67 per cent of India's population. The ordinance will come into effect immediately once it is signed by the President. But it also needs to be approved by both the houses of Parliament in the monsoon session within six...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Congress today indicated that the food security scheme would be its main electoral plank, describing it as the biggest ever government intervention in the world to fight hunger and malnutrition. President Pranab Mukherjee today signed the food security ordinance that entitles two-thirds of India's population to 5kg food grains every month at highly subsidised rates. The Centre plans to convert it into an act soon. Congress communications chief...

-The Hindu The government has come good on its promise to put in place a food security architecture but the manner in which it has pushed through the historic measure, which gives roughly 67 per cent of the population a legal right over cheap food grains, suggests it was done with an eye on the 2014 general election. The ordinance route is an extraordinary move, considered legitimate only in situations of...

-The Telegraph Mumbai: The immediate fiscal impact of the food security programme is going to be manageable. Since implementation of the scheme across India will take time, the cost burden for the programme in fiscal year 2013-14, in addition to the budgeted food subsidy of Rs 90,000 crore, has been estimated by Edelweiss Research at Rs 10,000 crore. This is roughly 0.1 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP). But once the...