INDIA-A SCAM RIDDEN COUNTRY WITH NO CONCERN ABOUT FOOD SECURITY!

In to day's India, the most "entertaining" subject of discussion is poverty! Hardly a day passes without some one coming out with a figure for the percentage of families below poverty line and this is funny considering that no one knows where lies the poverty line! Many committees, government departments, Planning Commission (NPC), Social activists, Economic pundits all have their own views regarding this matter. The most ridiculous stand was that of the NPC which told the Supreme Court that Rs 32 (urban) and Rs 26 (rural)earning a day would be the cut off mark, those earning less than these figures being eligible to be called "poor"! Unfortunately the government of the day finds no time to devote to this issue as it is busy doing fire fighting operations against many scams which have surfaced during the last two years draining country's resources. The food security situation can be termed satisfactory if the present quantum of grains hoarded in FCI Warehouses is any indication but the million dollar question is whether these grains are reaching the targeted beneficiaries qualitatively and quantitatively. If international norms for food security are considered India as a country has to hang its head in shame because of its dismal position among the comity of nations! Here is a take on this vital issue that must concern every self respecting citizen of the country.

"India's food security situation continues to rank as "alarming" according to the International Food Policy Research Institute's Global Hunger Index, 2011. It ranks 67 of the 81 countries of the world with the worst food security status. This means that there are only 14 countries in the world whose people have a worse nutritional status. The GHI is composed of three equally weighted indicators - the proportion of the population that is undernourished, the proportion of children who are underweight and under-five child mortality. India's GHI for 2011 was 23.7 - lower than it was last year, but higher than it was 15 years ago - giving it a rank of 67. Pakistan, Nepal, Rwanda and Sudan all did better than India, while Bangladesh, Haiti and the Democratic Republic of Congo were among the countries that did worse. While the DRC is the only country whose food security situation has deteriorated in the last ten years, India has the ignominy of being among the countries with the least improvement in the same period. It has however moved from having an "extremely alarming" food security situation - the worst grade given by IFPRI - to "alarming", that is, having a GHI between 20 and 29.9. China, Iran and Brazil are among the countries that have more than halved their GHI scores over the last decade. The UPA government was not able to introduce a Food Security Bill in the monsoon session and there is little agreement yet over who qualifies as poor enough to receive subsidized food grain".

With massive subsidies being "spent" on the poor, is it not pathetic that the government is still not sure who is really poor and how many are poor in the country ? Where are those subsidies flowing from the Exchequer ending up if poor is not benefited? The much talked about Public Distribution System (PDS) is in shambles with more than 60% of the foods meant for the poor being siphoned off by "thieves and criminals" with political and bureaucratic nexus. The so called Food Security Bill, being drafted since ages does not seem to be any where near the point of being implemented. The debate on making PDS universal is endless and going no where. If the country wishes to be counted among the top economic powerhouses in the world, this is definitely not the way to demonstrate its prowess! At this rate India may be struggling for years to come, even to overtake minor countries like Nepal, Sri Lanka, Haiti, Congo and others with no hope for real food security for its countless millions trapped in poverty!

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

YES, MINISTER, PLEASE DO IT, COUNTRY IS WITH YOU

Public Distribution System, generally known by its acronym PDS, has been the backbone of India's food security till a decade ago and was being grossly neglected while the GOI was engrossed in economic liberalization policies. There was a time not in the too distant past when most of the population had ration cards for drawing food grains and sugar at subsidized rates and the ration card doubled up as a family identity document acceptable for many official purposes. Over a period of time most of the card holders stopped patronizing the ration shops because of poor quality of grains sold by these outlets, most of them housed in dilapidated structures and managed by inefficient cooperatives or "not so honest" small scale traders. According to sociologists, more than 60% of PDS grains are siphoned off by unscrupulous pilferers with the blessings of corrupt politicians and petty bureaucrats. To day the system has degenerated into a "poverty eradication" tool for distributing food grains at ridiculously low prices of Rs 2-3/ kg to the so called "Below Poverty Line" population, with more that 70% of the country's citizens having no card at all. It is any body's guess as to what proportion ultimately reaches the intended beneficiaries.

"Computerisation of the entire network of targeted public distribution system (TPDS) operation is a must and should be completed in a time-bound manner," Pawar said speaking at a conference of food secretaries here. He said the government has already initiated the process of computerisation of PDS network up to the Food Corporation of India (FCI) delivery point. "It is essential that our efforts in this direction to be accelerated so as to cover the entire distribution chain from the procurement process and ending with retail distribution at fair price shop level," Pawar said while adding, states should also simultaneously take up such networking at their end. The minister said, use of technologies such as global positioning systems for tracking of movement of PDS commodities, bar-coded ration coupons, digitisation of ration card database and smart cards would also help in bring changes in the system and it need to be taken up. "The time has come to have a re-look at the way it has been functioning and introduce reforms so as to make our TPDS more efficient and responsive to the changing socio-economic milieu," Pawar said.

The Minister for Food and Agriculture is a busy senior politician with added responsibility of administering the International Cricket Council based in Dubai as its President and must be congratulated for his policy declaration which has far reaching implications. That he found sufficient time to "air" his thoughts is a good augury and if implemented as proposed by him, there is a distnict possibility that a substantial portion of the resources now being "looted" could be saved. But there are imponderable factors that can still thwart the scheme and the die-hard corrupt breed in India have their own way of circumventing any well laid out fool proof plans and hijack public money. Use of modern computer technology including bar coding, RFI Tagging, Global Positioning etc is well thought of to keep track of commodity storage, transportation and retail distribution net work. The desire to transform Ration Shops into modern type of retail stores is also welcome and if these modernization efforts succeed, covering the entire population, there could be no more need for a unique identification number for which GOI is spending a fortune.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.comD

THE "INFERNO" OF FOOD INFLATION-IS INDIA SITTING ON A "DYNAMITE"?

Poverty line is defined by the inability of a segment of population to buy what is needed for sustaining life and there is always controversy surrounding this issue. The invention of international economic pundits to compare the countries on a "purchasing power parity" (PPP) scale invariably boosts the per capita income of people in some of the developing countries and a country like India "shines" because the cost of living is much less here than that in many wealthy countries. It is an irony that India is being projected as an economic power while more than one third of its population is supposed to be below the proverbial poverty line. But poor is getting poorer is a hard fact of life as the benefits of development during the last 6 decades have not percolated down in the society, rich becoming richer in the process. Recent trends of the inflation dynamics show that the food inflation is creeping up continuously reducing the food purchasing power of poor people to unbearable levels. Whether such a trend will lead to uncontrollable social unrest is a worrying issue that is attracting world wide attention.

"When inflation occurs largely because of rising prices of food products (as it has in India of late), it becomes a double burden on the underprivileged since food accounts for more than half the expenditures of the poor. Over the last seven months, food inflation has ranged between 13% and 20%. Prices of pulses, dairy products, sugar, edible oils, fruits, vegetables and cereals have all gone up considerably. The government acknowledges that the bottom one-third of the country's 1bn-plus population lives below a contentiously-defined "poverty line". India is currently mulling the enactment of a new law conferring the right to food to all its citizens. Until the middle of 2008, inflation in India was driven largely by high prices of petroleum products.The country imports over three-quarters of its total requirements of crude oil though it has surplus capacity to refine petroleum products (some of which is, paradoxically, exported). Whereas kerosene and cooking gas are subsidised, the benefits often do not reach those the subsidies are meant for".

Recent abolition of fuel subsidy on Petrol and Diesel is bound to have a cascading effect on food prices which will further exacerbate the food inflation. This is especially true with regard to Diesel which is an essential commodity in the country used for road and rail transportation. Unlike in other countries Diesel is priced less in India historically to maintain transportation cost at low levels and it will be difficult to reverse this position without upsetting the national economy dramatically. As it has been rightly argued GOI as well as the state governments must reduce taxes on these fuels, especially the diesel, if the current inflationary trend is to be arrested. Same is true with LPG also as its use has become widespread, even popular in rural areas near distribution points. GOI's priority in enacting toothless "laws" such as"right to food" act can at best be only symbolic, if effective action is not taken to control inflation.

V.H.POTTY

http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com