Food Security Act

This comes at a time when concerns have been raised about food safety standards violations by e-commerce and quick commerce platforms for packaged food products

The decision is aimed at enhancing the operational capabilities of FCI in fulfilling its mandate effectively

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 4 announced the extension of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana scheme for another five years

India has urged WTO members to start text-based negotiations from this month on finding a permanent solution to the issue of public stockholding for food security purposes, an official has said. The official added that the European Union (EU) is ready for talks with India on the stockholding issue. The issue came up for discussion at an agriculture negotiations meeting on October 2 in Geneva. It was chaired by Ambassador Alparslan Acarsoy of Turkiye. At that meeting, the EU offered a positive response to the chair's textual suggestions related to the safeguards mechanism aimed at preventing illegitimate exports stemming from excessive food stocks, the official said. The Geneva-based trade official also said that the EU explicitly recognized that the safeguards and anti-circumvention are indeed the key provisions which deal with the possible impact of public stockholding policies. India urged members to commence text-based negotiations as soon as possible, preferably at the senior

The United Nations has been forced to cut food, cash payments and assistance to millions of people in many countries because of a crippling funding crisis that has seen its donations plummet by about half as acute hunger is hitting record levels, a top official said Friday. Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the World Food Programme, told a news conference that at least 38 of the 86 countries where WFP operates have already seen cuts or plan to cut assistance soon including Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen and West Africa. He said WFP's operating requirement is USD 20 billion to deliver aid to everyone in need, but it was aiming for between USD 10 billion and USD 14 billion, which was what the agency had received in the past few years. We're still aiming at that, but we have only so far this year gotten to about half of that, around USD 5 billion, Skau said. He said humanitarian needs were going through the roof in 2021 and 2022 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukrain

"Are we able to meet the modern challenges? Is SCO becoming an organization that is fully prepared for the future?" Modi asked

Delhi has not constituted a state food commission and not framed a grievance redressal mechanism as mandated by the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, Raj Niwas officials said on Monday. There was no immediate reaction from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in the capital on the issue. Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena has approved the draft of the Delhi Grievance Redressal Rules pending since 2013 and slammed the city government for the "delay", the officials said. "Delhi has not constituted a state food commission and not framed a grievance redressal mechanism as mandated by the NFS Act, 2013 even after 10 years. The mechanism and the commission meant to look into critical aspects of transparent and corruption-free implementation of the TPDS (Targeted Public Distribution System) under the NFSA was even ordered to be put in place by the Supreme Court and the high court way back in 2017, within the deadline in 2017 itself," a senior official said. However, despite the apex ..

The Union Food Ministry on Tuesday directed state governments to ensure compliance with the June 12 wheat stock limit order and ensure disclosure of stocks, thereby checking unfair trade practices. In a virtual meeting with state food secretaries, Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra asked state governments to obtain disclosures of wheat stock held by wholesalers/traders, retailers, big chain retailers and processors to check the unfair practices and to bring transparency in the availability of wheat. The central government on June 12 notified stock limits on wheat for wholesalers, traders, retailers, big chain retailers and processors till March 31, 2024. It also decided to offload wheat and rice under Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS). "The measures were aimed at cooling down the prices and prevent hoarding and speculation," an official statement said. A user manual regarding submitting the stock has also been shared with state governments for ease of filling up the data on the portal ...

According to FCI, the wheat stock in Central pool on April 1 next year is expected to be 11.3 million tonnes, higher than the buffer requirement of 7.5 million tonnes

The apex court directed the Centre to re-determine coverage in accordance with Section 9 of the NFSA

Goa and Chhattisgarh at the bottom of the pile on implementation of National Food Security Act

States raise matter in central government's meeting on food security, say beneficiaries complaining

India is ranked at 71st position in the Global Food Security (GFS) Index 2021 of 113 countries, but the country lags behind its neighbours Pakistan and Sri Lanka in terms food affordability

Here are the best of Business Standard's opinion pieces for Wednesday

Scheme on the lines of PMGKAY-1 will cost the exchequer addl Rs 26,000 crore in FY22

The pandemic has severely disrupted the food security and nutrition for millions of people around the world, and will likely reverse the progress made towards ending hunger by 2030

Sanjeeb Mukherjee looks at how the Odisha model of decentralised procurement has a few key advantages, but certain challenges, too

There are speculations on whether the government's policy on genetically engineered products has undergone a subtle, even if undeclared, change. If it is so, it is welcome

He also transferred Rs 42 crore to 2 lakh 10 thousand cooks of mid-day meal kitchens in their bank accounts

Changes in Food Security Act imperative