The Congress will only be able to gain from the bill if its benefits percolate down to the people within the next eight months, says Anita Katyal
Replying to a debate on inflation in the Rajya Sabha, Pranab Mukherjee said he is not passing the buck to the states for controlling surging prices, but most areas like PDS and enforcing the Essential Commodities Act lay with them.
The Principal Secretary of Planning Commission also requested the people of Jammu and Kashmir on behalf of the central government to maintain peace.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is hailed as the architect of economic reforms in the country, is a member of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance, it was announced on Tuesday.
Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour, Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said the government would follow an inclusive policy wherein both APL and below poverty line families will get foodgrains at cheaper rates. He added that the annual subsidy burden on the government would come around to Rs 50,000 crore.
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Sakshi Balani presents an FAQ on the Food Security Bill that was passed by Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
Elevated food price-led inflation could become a sore point for markets, which they seem to be ignoring at current levels, observe analysts. Retail inflation in India - as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) - came in at a three-month high of 6.52 per cent in January 2023, compared with 5.72 per cent in December and 5.88 per cent in November 2022. The inflation print for February, according to Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at Bank of Baroda, will be critical for the Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy committee.
The first Global Agro-Industries Forum will be organised in New Delhi from 8 to 11 April 2008.
The leaders later submitted to the government, what they said, were over 5 crore signatures collected during a two-month long nationwide campaign on these demands. The signatures on the charter of demands were delivered on a truck.
'Our factories are world-class and are becoming increasingly attractive for our global business leaders to use to serve other markets.'
Guterres reiterated his call for a COVID-19 vaccine to be a global public good available to everywhere and particularly, available in Africa.
A much stronger focus was required on irrigation and water management. The FM merely acknowledged that it was a problem.
Under attack from Left parties and other allies like DMK, the government on Tuesday put on hold the decision to reduce quantity of foodgrains under the public distribution system that would have brought down food subsidy.
A 6-7 million tonnes shortfall in rice production due to a fall in paddy sowing area is likely to keep rice prices at elevated levels, adding to the inflationary pressure that the slowing economy is already grappling with. Elevated food prices, including that of cereals, had led to retail inflation reversing a three-month declining trend, to touch 7 per cent in August. Similarly, the wholesale price inflation, which declined to 11-month low, also showed price pressures from cereals resulting from wheat output being impacted by severe heat waves in some parts of the country.
In order check irregularities, Bihar has decided to introduce biometric cards in the Public Distribution System, officials said on Monday.
Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Friday said it will be difficult to decontrol sugar industry as many state governments, including the country's second largest producer Uttar Pradesh, are against freeing this sector.
The trouble for Nestle's Maggi started in Uttar Pradesh last month and has now spread nationwide. The Food and Drug Administration has directed all states on Wednesday to get sample of India's most popular instant noodles tested for high content of lead and mono-sodium glutamate, a taste enhancer.
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.
The agitation against ration dealers broke out in Bankura district on September 16 and spread to Birbhum, Burdwan and Mushidabad districts claiming five lives, including two in police firing. The FCI CMD said the offtake (lifting the foodgrain) of the state was lower against the Central allocation during August and September. He said the attack on ration dealers may be because of some other reasons.
The stock and foreign exchange markets have had a negative reaction to the government's biggest social security programme, the National Food Security Bill. Food minister K V Thomas questions the rationale behind such a response
N Kalyanasundaram started saving up last year so that he could feed the hungry during the second COVID lockdown.
'We went from zero to about 10 million users in three months. Paytm came out with the wallet play and we came out with the UPI play.'
State links PDS to UID to plug leakages in food supplies but gaps remain.
Pre-Budget excercise next month should scrupulously avoid adventurism of all types and refrain from making excessively ambitious projections on revenue and expenditure numbers for 2023-24, suggests A K Bhattacharya.
Pant, a 1991-batch Indian Administrative Service officer of Rajasthan cadre, is currently secretary in the ministry of ports, shipping and waterways.
The special investigation cell of the Arunachal Pradesh police on Tuesday arrested former state chief minister and senior Congress leader Gegong Apang from Itanagar in connection with Rs 1,000 crore Public Distribution System scam.
In his second term in office, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has retained 34 portfolios.
The National Advisory Council, chaired by Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, met for the second time on Thursday after its recent revival and unanimously endorsed the idea of universal access to the public distribution system (PDS) in rural areas.
The National Advisory Council, chaired by Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, met for the second time on Thursday after its recent revival and unanimously endorsed the idea of universal access to the public distribution system in rural areas. It was agreed that a universalised PDS should be implemented initially in 150 districts, a member said.
The central government on Thursday ruled out the restructuring of the Food Corporation of India and instead asked the states to remove the shortcomings in the public distribution system.\n\n
Siphoning off food and fuel meant for the poor has made India's public distribution system ineffective.
Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran on Thursday said the economy is expected to grow at 6.5 per cent in the current fiscal notwithstanding deficient rains in August. India recorded economic growth of 7.8 per cent in the April-June quarter of 2023-24 against 13.1 per cent in the year-ago period. India's economy in Q1 grew at the fastest pace in a year, on the shoulders of a boost in capital expenditure both at central and state levels, along with stronger consumption demand, especially in rural areas, and improved performance in the services sector, he said.
Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar was given the finance and planning portfolio on Friday, nearly two weeks after he broke away from the original party and took oath as Maharashtra's deputy chief minister.
A marginally lower stock of 21.04 million tonnes is to be maintained in the first quarter as on April 1 as against 21.2 million tonnes.
The Maharashtra government has embarked on an ambitious plan to issue computerised, barcode-based ration cards within the next eight months in a bid to overhaul the operations of the Public Distribution System. Spanco Telesystems and Solutions Ltd, a leading systems integration and business process outsourcing companies has bagged from the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection department to execute this plan.
A study by eminent economists, by Jean Drze, Reetika Khera and Meghana Mungikar released few days back shows that more than 100 million people are excluded from the PDS because the central government insists on using 2011 population figures to calculate state-wise coverage under the National Food Security Act.
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