Food security or financial starvation?
The proponents of the National Food Security Bill (NFSB), now under consideration of Parliament, would have never imagined that it would become a cocktail of PDS and conditional cash transfers (CCT). Distribution of grains at economic cost to the exchequer (the sum of purchase price, storage and distribution) and its subsequent subsidy to the targeted beneficiaries is proposed to be linked to cash transfers. The broad contours of CCT have been spelt out in recent press reports.