-Down to Earth Shanta Kumar committee report recommends privatisation, outsourcing and cash benefit transfer to cut food procurement and distribution costs The high level committee set up to look into the restructuring of Food Corporation of India has recommended reducing the number of beneficiaries under the Food Security Act-from the current 67 per cent to 40 per cent. It has also recommended allowing private players to procure and store food grains, stopping...

-The Guardian Countries are recognising their obligation to feed their citizens, but with growing corporate control over food systems, the battle is far from over As the first round of intergovernmental negotiations on the sustainable development goals gets under way in New York, I am reminded of the immense struggle over time to ensure that every human being has quality food in sufficient quantity to meet their needs - a right laid...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government should reduce coverage under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) to 40% of the population from 67% and defer implementation of the scheme in states which have not complied with the rollout conditions, a panel appointed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recommended. The panel headed by former food minister Shanta Kumar submitted the report to the PM on Wednesday. Reforming the subsidy regime...

-The Indian Express Mumbai: Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Friday that his government won't cut subsidies for the poor, it has now come to light that the BJP-Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra has already silently discontinued the food subsidy for nearly 2 crore people in the state. According to sources, the Devendra Fadnavis government has decided to discontinue supply of subsidised food grains to 1.77 crore people who were...

-IPS News SUNDARBANS, India- When the gentle clucking grows louder, 50-year-old Sukomal Mandal calls out to his wife, who is busy grinding ingredients for a fish curry. She gets up to thrust leafy green stalks through the netting of a coop and two-dozen shiny hens rush forward for lunch. In the Sundarbans, where the sea is slowly swallowing up the land, Mandal's half-hectare farm is an oasis of prosperity. The elderly couple resides...