KEY TRENDS   • During 2014-15, while procurement of foodgrains (rice and wheat) increased from 56.9 million tonnes to 60.2 million tonnes, offtake of foodgrains (rice and wheat) from the PDS decreased from 59.8 million tonnes to 55.9 million tonnes. Despite increased availability in the PDS and prevalence of high inflation in foodgrains, dependence on the PDS is reducing, suggesting that there may be issues of availability, timely availability and quality of the PDS foodgrains...

‘No mechanism to protect the poor’ IN a period characterised by all-round price rise, the issue of food security assumes extreme significance, especially for the rural and urban poor. At a time when the need for a universal public distribution system is increasingly felt, the government’s categorisation of a very small percentage of the people as being below the poverty line and eligible for rations has invited a lot of...

‘Entitlements under NREGA violated’       Jean Drèze is a Development Economist of Belgian origin (now an Indian citizen) and has co-authored several books with Nobel laureate Amartya Sen. He studied Mathematical Economics at the University of Essex and did his PhD (Economics) at the Indian Statistical Institute, New Delhi. Jean has made wide-ranging contributions to development economics and public economics, with special reference to India. He is currently a visiting...