Increasing the prices at which people living above the poverty line are offered monthly foodgrains under the proposed Food Security Act could now offset the cost of increased food subsidy for the poor. The Planning Commission is going to suggest that the government offer only 25 kgs of foodgrains to those living above the poverty line (APL) at the same price as it costs the government to buy up the...
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Normal rain forecast cools food inflation by Unni Krishnan
India’s food inflation slowed as Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said agriculture prices may cool further on prospects of sufficient rains this year. An index measuring wholesale prices of agriculture products including lentils, rice and vegetables compiled by the commerce ministry rose 16.61% in the week ended 17 April from a year earlier. It gained 17.65% the previous week, according to a statement in New Delhi on Thursday. Mukherjee on Wednesday vowed to...
More »India opposition parties strike over high food prices
Communist and opposition parties in India are holding nationwide protests against rising food and fuel prices. The Communist-governed states of West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala are likely to be worst hit by the 12-hour strike called by the parties. Air and train services have been disrupted in West Bengal, and attendance in offices across the states is reported to be patchy. Food prices in India have risen by as much as...
More »‘Calculate eligible BPL families for Rs. 3 a kg food grains' by Gargi Parsai
The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) on Friday urged the Planning Commission to work out the number of Below Poverty Line (BPL) households and the households' size that would be eligible for Rs. 3 per kg discounted food grains under the proposed National Food Security Bill. The Tendulkar Committee report had placed the BPL percentage at 37.2 which, at 2005 population and household size, works out to about 7.14 crore households...
More »A Bellyful Of Proposals by Bhavdeep Kang
THE FLAGSHIP scheme of UPA II, the proposed National Food Security Act (NFSA), has become a policymaker’s nightmare. If suggestions by the Finance Ministry (reportedly at the instance of Congress President Sonia Gandhi) and the state governments are incorporated, the yearly food grain requirement would be close to 80 million tonnes. But considering food grain procurement in an average year is 40 to 41 million tonnes — half the amount...
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