A Failed Food System In India Prompts An Intense Review

This isn't as bad as it seems, I think. India's poor have always gone hungry. Corruption has always been endemic. At least now there is enough grain being grown; not long ago, there wasn't enough food to go around. And now there is a program developed to feed the poor, which isn't working, but before there was no such attempt.So all they need now is better infrastructure, better tracking and accountability, and they'll have the problem solved. Could be done within a decade.Of course, that's if they truly want to feed the poor. Democracy, as an ideal, would want that; capitalism would not care. So we'll see which wins out.

Walmart or Costco will bring in their own supply chain mechanisms to satisfy their requirements catering to the middle and upper class. I do not see how they will better the PDS system of the country which caters primarily to the lower class. Can you support your statement of "poverty alleviation by opening up Indian retail sector" with data. Since you are in Hyderabad, have you ever been to a ration shop? Private sector and "opening up" is not the panacea all the time. But I understand it will benefit many of the readers of NYT and the unemployed consultants and economists. There is no magic bullet solution to Indian PDS sector issues. In many ways the PDS idea is a resounding success...even with the great problems. Real poverty alleviation happens when you get included in the BPL - Below Poverty Line - category.

Most other developing countries have as much corruption as India (based on whatever evidence we have) - but they don't have even half of India's malnutrition rate. Why? It is lazy to use corruption as an explanation for everything wrong with India. Most commentators here (Indian or foreign) seem to have this habit.

the guy in charge of planning commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, recently got his toilet fixed for $70 K with access cards and other gimmicks, where as india's poverty level is $36/month, indian ration shops owned by the trading community is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the food distribution system and the leading opposition party supports them - nothing will change in india anytime soon

Indian govt. has done very stupid things in the past and continues to do so. It remains one of the most corrupt on earth, especially with the Congress party in power run by the family members and friends of Indira Gandhi.

"The world's emerging super power", while its children go hungry.

It is always the poor who must wait while the echelons blunder their way, letting the corruption line the silk of their pockets and continue to deny that they have done nothing but the very best for the very poor, homeless and hungry. Why is it that when a country begins to be flush with capital as India, China ,and the Russians have demonstrated that more people become impoverished-wages rarely increase , small cities still suffer from tainted water and what food is thrown to them, their infrastructures crumble while new Mercedes drivers complain about the condition of the roads, the raggedy children and unwashed faces, and why must we still have to look at them. Let us build our own new city-we will gorge on apples, figs and pears, and leave the cores for the pigs. Corruption is the bane of all societies.

Whether governance has "failed" or not depends on which side of India's tyranny you are. The beneficaries of India's corrupt and criminal social engineering totalitarianism such as India's elected representatives will insist that all is well.

(I do research in this area in an university). There is too much confusion on these issues among the broader public and even among economists (sometimes)! Commentators typically jump from noting that there is high malnutrition in India to saying that lot of people are going hungry - so there is a tendency to see the problem of malnutrition in terms of people not being able to afford food because of low income. (It is only natural that people think like that - but it is not correct). First, surveys show that the number of people who are going hungry in India are less than 10% (hunger is defined as not being able to afford two square meals a day). Second, the data also show that the poor actually consume MORE food calories than the rich - however, the rich have a superior nutritional status because they consume a higher quality diet (more milk/vegetables/meat whereas the diet of the poor is high in basic cereals). So for the majority of the poor, the problem is NOT availability of simple staples like rice, wheat and lentils. Rather, they should be encouraged to diversify and move to a higher quality diet (like the better-off) - so what the government should do is not distribute rice and wheat to the poor, but provide them with food coupons or transfer some cash to the poorest families which would enable them to transition to a higher quality diet. However, even middle class Indians have an absurdly high malnutrition rate - what explains that?..continued later......

The Indian economy has recorded bumper food grains production in recent years and yet experienced runaway food inflation at over 9%.The major reason for inflation in primary articles are supply chain constraints and infrastructure bottlenecks which prevent transportation of food grains cheaply and efficiently throughout the country. The current system of marketing food grains through APMC Act also adds to inflation. India’s state run freight train railway system should be privatized to significantly improve supply and distribution of food grains, allowing producers to sell to private buyers through an efficiently functioning market system which determines pricing and output without intervention of middlemen. This model can result in setting up of private cash grain markets in line with advanced countries where buyers can interact with sellers to determine pricing, output and distribution. The link between exchange rate, interest rates deficits, inflation and growth should also be explored. While depreciation of the rupee adds to inflation, government deficits lead to borrowings, high interest rates and slowdown in growth. In the current scenario where the India aspires to grow at around 7%, it is experiencing structural constraints which are starting to act as a drag on growth.

Quality analysis. In my state Kerala - one of the non-poor states of India with very high literacy - the situation is absurd. BPL - Below Poverty Line - ration card holders get rice for Rs. 1 a kilo - 20 kilos a month. This is the cheapest price anywhere in the world. But the rice usually ends up in the black market. Two reasons...most - not all - can afford a slightly better quality rice which goes for Rs. 15 to Rs. 20 per kilo. Also a single person does not need 20 kilos of rice a month unless he/she does not eat anything else the whole month. In a way the PDS - Public Distribution System - is a great success and I cannot blame the politicians for playing the populist card - they have to get elected. Plus everyone knows the sops given to industry in form of subsidies, loan write offs and rampant bribery. Recently the planning commission led by ex World Bank / IMF tool Montek Singh Ahluwalia got the rap for fixing the toilets in their building for Rs. 35 laks - almost $70000. No one in India - except the filthy rich with their own special potty needs - needs toilets costing $70000. Montek Singh Ahluwalia is the man behind the proposal of keeping BPL rates at Rs.24 a day - (about $0.50) to be included in the BPL - Below Poverty Line - category. The whole country is absurd from ground up. And thats the fun and the point of India. Be a bit detached and you get quality entertainment.

The cost of inefficiency and corruption in food distribution is alarming. It is time India studies successful food distribution models in other countries and bring in changes quickly.

Yes, India is doing a dismal job. So are we; and we should be more ashamed, if anything."Nobody on the planet starves because the world doesn't have enough food. "We have so much food, we burn it."People starve- because the world is mean."And it's an old, old horror; this is not new- and our inaction is not new either.http://littlebloginthebigwoods.blogspot.com/2008/03/world-carelessness.html

To anyone familiar with the pervasive corruption in India, this should come as no surprise.

It's not well understood that many in emerging markets people starve not because there isn't enough food, but because there is a lack of refrigerated trucking, warehouses, logistics, paved highways, and accountability in the supply chain (in addition to corruption and graft.) There has been so much hand wringing in India about allowing Walmart and other multi-format retail into the country; think of the second and third order effects and the supply chain networks that would have to be built in order to supply goods to the outlets. Allowing for more free foreign private sector participation to build the necessary networks to take food from farm to consumer and bypass the many bloated intermediaries would probably be the single largest poverty alleviation action ever taken in the country.