The Food Security Act as proposed by the UPA government assures rice/wheat at Rs 3 a kg to BPL families as a matter of legal right.
All those who have been dismayed by the food security ordinance should thank Manmohan Singh and his colleagues for a neat optical trick, says T N Ninan.
The November 26 meeting, the first of its kind, will also take up trade facilitation agreement.
The government today decided to promulgate an ordinance to give nation's two-third population the right to 5 kgs of foodgrain every month at highly subsidised rates of Rs 1-3 per kg. The Cabinet, which had in June deferred a decision on the issue, today approved promulgating an ordinance to implement the Food Security Bill, sources said.
Unlike in langars, free feeding under the food security bill may force people to swallow their shame.
While Andhra Pradesh is expected to receive Rs 15,000 crore to Rs 20,000 crore, Bihar is likely to get Rs 5,000 crore to Rs 10,000 crore in FY25.
"I am very impressed with India's ability to stand up and defy the international regime which has no regard for the food security of 600 million farmers and 800 million hungry people," says Devinder Sharma.
He referred to the Modi government scheme providing five kilograms of ration to the poor every month and said, "The Congress brought the Food Security Act, you did nothing."
Food security for all was a poll promise from the ruling Congress party before this year's general elections.
Critics have even suggested that India is doing this because it is not prepared to take on the requirements of TFA, with a relatively weak trade infrastructure.
Only three percent of Indians pay income tax; our tax-GDP ratio is among the lowest in the world. This must change. Our elites must realise that India's poverty has damaging consequences for them, and that they can help decrease it. The food security bill, with all its limitations, will hopefully contribute to generating such awareness, says Praful Bidwai.
A public interest litigation was filed on Saturday in the Supreme Court seeking quashing of controversial Food Security Ordinance on the ground that the constitutional provision has been misused for pre-election propaganda and political gains.
The Samajwadi Party on Monday said it will support the Food Security Bill in Parliament if the amendments, including giving due price to farmers and changing the definition of those below the poverty line, suggested by it, are accepted.
Earlier this week, the Empowered Group of Ministers approved the draft of the Food Security Bill, which will entitle 75 per cent of rural households and 50 per cent of urban households to subsidised foodgrain.
It should be called the food insecurity bill. It is too weak and mean to fight hunger, says Praful Bidwai
The National Food Security Bill was scuttled by Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar who threw the spanner with a dissent note in his capacity as the Union agriculture minister.
The Food and Security Bill will be implemented after few months.
Nowhere on the planet, nowhere in mankind's history has such an idea taken the concrete shape in form of a law. The National Food Security Bill, which will come via ordinance and not after the debate in Parliament, is an incredible economic tool to tackle the hunger of poor Indians. Also, it has already been condemned widely as a political gimmick.
The big budget and big boom National Food Security Bill, which will be to UPA II what the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and the Right To Information Act were to UPA I, could not be cleared by the Union Cabinet on Tuesday and has been deferred to be taken up in its next meeting.
The overall fiscal and inflationary consequences of the Food Security Bill for the country are "large" and will become clear from the next fiscal year.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has convened a meeting of senior ministers on Tuesday to discuss the recommendations of the National Advisory Council on the Food Security Bill.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said rising inflation and slow response to rising demand for wheat, pulses, rice and edible oil have caused a sense of urgency for food security in the country.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's Budget proposals lay out a comprehensive road map for transforming India into a developed nation, focusing on key priorities that aim to generate ample opportunities for all citizens in "Viksit Bharat". It sets the stage for sustained economic growth, social development, and technological advancement.
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Sakshi Balani presents an FAQ on the Food Security Bill that was passed by Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
The Congress government in Assam hopes to implement the National Food Security Ordinance which has been passed by the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government in the Centre, within six months, as desired by the Centre.
Ushering in the biggest programme in the world to fight hunger, Parliament on Monday gave its nod to the landmark Food Security Bill which seeks to provide highly subsidised foodgrains to the country's two-third population as a right.
Rajni Bakshi explains why a mobilisation like the Kisan Swaraj Yatra is significant and why it is opposed to GM crop.
The Manmohan Singh government's rush to pass the Food Security Bill reflects extreme paucity of logic and action, says Neeta Kolhatkar
The foodgrain guarantee is part of the proposed National Food Security Bill.
Runaway food prices are here to stay and taming that will need far greater structural changes than temporary clampdowns on hoarding and exports.
The Bill at best makes the existing public distribution system a legal right, an aspect that seems of little consequence to the lords of high finance, whose primary anxiety is the FSB-by-numbers.
In the last six years, the Centre has endevoured to give the highest priority to agriculture.
'Because the economics of the Food Security Bill is not viable, poor people are not going to get it. Poor people are going to take it and sell it in the open market. How does migrant labour store rice securely,' asks RS Seshadri, an agro industry expert
Ukraine and Russia need to engage with each other to find a solution to the ongoing conflict between them, India said on Friday after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held wide-ranging talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv under the shadow of the raging war.
Describing agriculture as the critical livelihood issue for developing nations, the World Trade and Development report on Wednesday underlined the need for providing a food security box for countries with large populations dependent on farming.
'The poor must be allowed to self select themselves. A poor family must be given a ration card on demand and the government must accept responsibility for providing subsidised food grain.'
Top UN officials on Friday praised the recent $20 billion pledge made by G8 countries to boost food security in developing and poor countries.
Alleging that people's confidence has been shaken due to the economic mismanagement by the UPA government, a Trinamool Congress MP on Wednesday said it was worrisome that the rupee slid further after passage of the food security bill.
Lamenting that lot of time has been wasted in the last two to three Parliament sessions, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday asked the opposition to cooperate in the passage of the legislative business including the "most important" ordinance on Food security bill.
After much delay and uncertainty, the landmark Food Security Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on Monday which seeks to provide cheap foodgrains to 82 crore people in the country, ushering in the biggest programme in the world to fight hunger.
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