{"id":220525,"date":"2022-12-31T19:34:55","date_gmt":"2022-12-31T14:04:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=220525"},"modified":"2022-12-31T19:34:55","modified_gmt":"2022-12-31T14:04:55","slug":"free-distribution-of-food-grains-sobering-year-end-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/free-distribution-of-food-grains-sobering-year-end-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"Free distribution of food grains: Sobering year end reality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/span><\/b>: The post is based on the article\u202f\u201c<\/strong><\/span>Sobering year end reality\u201d <\/strong>published in <\/span>Business Standard<\/span><\/b>\u202fon\u202f<\/span>31<\/span><\/b>st<\/span><\/b> December 2022<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/span><\/b>GS 3 \u2013 Food Security<\/p>\n

Relevance: <\/span><\/b>Concerns with the free distribution of food grains.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

News: <\/span><\/b>The government has recently allowed free food grains under NFSA till December 2023 and discontinued PMGKAY. This article discusses the impact of the decision of providing free food grains.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are the issues with free distribution of food grains?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

The government already provides subsidised food grains under NFSA but making it free will a)<\/strong> Add more <\/span>fiscal burden on the government, b)\u00a0<\/span><\/b>States<\/strong> that were offering free grain will save money<\/strong> because the Centre is now paying the full amount.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Central subsidies on food, fertiliser, and petroleum together account for <\/span>2.5 percent of GDP<\/span><\/b>. <\/span>Moreover, there are many other major concerns that government needs to address than just distributing free food grains.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are the other worrying concerns?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

The issue with Farming:<\/span><\/b> Farmers are provided with subsidized fertiliser, electricity along with MSP. But, a)<\/strong> very<\/strong> <\/span>little incentive is provided <\/span><\/b>for efficiency<\/strong> in using these scarce or costly inputs, b)<\/strong> Many <\/span>crops have productivity below international levels<\/span><\/b> and <\/span>wholesale subsidies are not enough<\/span><\/b> for the agricultural sector, c) <\/strong><\/span>Agriculture provides half of the job<\/span><\/b> in the country but wages are very low.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Issues with Income levels:<\/span><\/b> Around <\/span>94% of the workers<\/span><\/b> who have registered on the government\u2019s <\/span>e-shram portal report monthly incomes of under Rs 10,000.<\/span><\/b> Only 1.5 percent have<\/span><\/b> reported wages above Rs 15,000. <\/span><\/p>\n

Informal-sector workers account for about 80 percent of the total working population<\/span><\/b>. Out of these, <\/span>two-thirds are engaged in agriculture <\/span><\/b>getting low wages. <\/span>Inflation-adjusted farm wages<\/span><\/b> have also fallen in the past five years. <\/span><\/p>\n

The data on consumption habits and the purchases of consumer durables suggest a <\/span>broadening middle-class category<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore, these are major concerns in front of the government and providing free food grains will not bring much change. Instead, it will lead to political competition in providing freebies.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What measures can be adopted by the government?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n

a)<\/span><\/b> Bringing up <\/span>more manufacturing and services-sector work<\/span><\/b> is required so that fewer people depend on agriculture. <\/span>b)<\/span><\/b> Programmes like the <\/span>employment guarantee scheme<\/span><\/b> should be provided along with <\/span>investments in public health care, school education, and job-oriented training.<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: The post is based on the article\u202f\u201cSobering year end reality\u201d published in Business Standard\u202fon\u202f31st December 2022.\u00a0 Syllabus: GS 3 \u2013 Food Security Relevance: Concerns with the free distribution of food grains.\u00a0 News: The government has recently allowed free food grains under NFSA till December 2023 and discontinued PMGKAY. This article discusses the impact of… Continue reading Free distribution of food grains: Sobering year end reality<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10311,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[10503,216],"class_list":["post-220525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-public","tag-business-standard","tag-gs-paper-3","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220525\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}