-The Shillong Times   Taking cognizance over malpractices prevailing in the Public Distribution System (PDS) in the State, the Government is planning to computerize the whole system to check the malaise. To achieve this objective, the State Government has already submitted a Detailed Project Report (DPR) amounting to Rs 43 crore for computerization of the Public Distribution System (PDS) to the Central Government. “We had submitted the DPR through the National Informatics Centre (NIC)...

Signalling its commitment to roll out the Food Security Bill in the next fiscal, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee is likely to announce a token allocation of Rs. 5,000 crore in the forthcoming budget. The funds would primarily be directed at creating and strengthening the institutional arrangement to deliver the massive allotment promised under the scheme. The food security bill is of extreme political importance to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)...

In a report released on January 30, and covered by the world’s press the next day, the United Nations has warned of a severe resource crisis that would overtake the world if current trends persist. A growing population and a rise in the number of middle-class consumers will increase the demand for resources so rapidly that even by 2030 the world will need at least 50 per cent more food,...

The huge expenditure on the food bill, with the attendant leakages, could well make fiscal recovery impossible In the first part of this article, we have estimated the actual cost of implementing the food security bill in its current form. In this part, we now examine the fiscal sustainability of the same. The current state of the revenue and expenditure trends of the Central government (refer table) show that while revenue...

How economically sustainable is food subsidy? The cost could even be double of what the government estimates Food deprivation and malnutrition are completely unacceptable and everything has to be done to eliminate such an evil. The prevalence of malnutrition in a country like India is in itself a cause for serious concern since malnourished children may jeopardise India’s favourable demographic dividend (as per independent estimates, close to 60 per cent of...