{"id":33645,"date":"2022-12-23T11:15:06","date_gmt":"2022-12-23T05:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=33645"},"modified":"2025-04-20T00:16:56","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T18:46:56","slug":"free-foodgrains-for-81-crore-people-under-nfsa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/free-foodgrains-for-81-crore-people-under-nfsa\/","title":{"rendered":"Free foodgrains for 81 crore people under NFSA"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PM-GKAY)<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>National Food Security Act<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>News Summary<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The Union government said it would provide free foodgrains to beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act, 2013, as per their entitlement, for a year beginning January 2023.<\/li>\n<li>It has, however, discontinued the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana launched in April 2020 amid Covid-19.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PM-GKAY)?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>PM-GKAY is a food security welfare scheme announced by the Central Government in March 2020, during the <strong>Covid-19 pandemic<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>It is a part of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP) to help the poor fight the battle against Covid-19.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Objective<\/strong>: To feed the poorest citizens of India by providing grain through the Public Distribution System, to all the <strong>priority households<\/strong> (ration card holders and those identified by the Antyodaya Anna Yojana scheme).\n<ul>\n<li>Launched in 2000, Antyodaya Anna Yojana is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme to provide highly subsidised food to millions of the poorest families.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Implementing Agency<\/strong>: Department of Food and Public Distribution, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution<\/li>\n<li>Nodal ministry: Ministry of Finance.<\/li>\n<li>More than 80 crore beneficiaries are provided 5 kg free wheat\/rice per person per month.<\/li>\n<li>This is in addition to the 5 kg food grains already provided to the beneficiaries under the <strong>National Food Security Act, 2013<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>It is known as the largest food security programme in the world.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What is National Food Security Act (NFSA)?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The NFSA, 2013 was notified to provide for food and nutritional security, by ensuring access to adequate quantity of quality food at affordable prices to people to live a life with dignity.<\/li>\n<li>It provides <strong>a legal right<\/strong> to persons belonging to \u201celigible households\u201d to receive food grains at subsidised price<strong>\/<\/strong>central issue prices under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS).<\/li>\n<li>State governments are tasked with identifying Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY &#8211; poorest of the poor) and priority households (PHH) beneficiaries within the TPDS-covered population.<\/li>\n<li>Every person in the PHH category receives 5 kg of food grains per month at &#8211; <strong>rice at Rs 3\/kg, wheat at Rs 2\/kg and coarse grain at Re 1\/kg.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Each Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) household gets Rs 35 kg of food grains per month.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The Act covers up to 75% of the rural population and up to 50% of the urban population for receiving subsidised food grains (overall <strong>67<\/strong>% of the total population).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>News Summary<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The government decided to provide free foodgrains to 81.35 crore people for one year under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) at an estimated cost of Rs 2 lakh crore.<\/li>\n<li>It has, however, discontinued the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PM-GKAY).\n<ul>\n<li>PM-GKAY has been merged with the NFSA. Now, the entire quantity of 5 kg and 35 kg under the NFSA would be available free of cost.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The discontinuation of PMGKAY comes at a time when the foodgrains stock has depleted over the months.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh6.googleusercontent.com\/UTec5CZSx8SotMlWlQSL8byVdouf8PsNXHgGIBkOsA7Tr1oFuAuokYfOFiYo-9hqUP-Yh28OF2Z3AWYsOzoJVlBcU-FD6l99fuk5si0kNOEyRo8OYJB94Uyqe6PSZBnvE9-uQystWjZp_c776oHZbA\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Image Caption: Reason for merger of NFSA and PMGKAY<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>With this decision, for the first time, India will have a Central food security legislation which gives the poor a \u2018right\u2019 to receive 5 kg foodgrains free of cost.\n<ul>\n<li>Earlier, the poor paid a small price of Rs 3 per kg for rice and Rs 2 per kg for wheat.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The decision softens the blow the poor may suffer with the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana being discontinued by the end of the month.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Food allocation and estimated bill<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh4.googleusercontent.com\/jrIFCAi_4rMb1ZfLwsoCp0svQmP30wQLXhu16xSOZwb4mfmkx5GRc1SZUHhW4cGf_ql1x0eGO2opPEp4Asp5-XmZoOYidGLJTgoxHwyEqoaBW1L2brjyHCSNZx8bnXidy7VDQFyzhEnK7MaFNIe-VQ\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Image Caption: Foodgrain Allocation under NFSA<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>As per the latest allocation order for December, 13.67 lakh metric tonnes of wheat and 31.72 lakh metric tonnes of rice are required under the NFSA.<\/li>\n<li>The monthly requirement of the PMGKAY stood at about 40 lakh metric tonnes (wheat: 7 lakh metric tonnes and rice: 33 lakh metric tonnes).<\/li>\n<li>Discontinuing the PMGKAY would, however, save <strong>the government Rs 15,000 crore a month or about Rs 1.8 lakh crore a year<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1) What is a fair price shop?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Fair Price Shop means a shop which has been licensed to distribute essential commodities by an order issued under section 3 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, to the ration card holders under the Targeted Public Distribution System.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2) Is Food Corporation of India a statutory body?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Yes. FCI is a statutory Organization constituted under Food Corporation&#8217;s Act, 1964 and has been carrying out its operations since 1965 with an objective to trade in food grains and other foodstuffs.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/81-crore-people-to-get-free-foodgrains-for-one-year\/article66299556.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Free foodgrains for 81 crore people under NFSA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recently, government decided to distribute free foodgrains to beneficiaries under the NFSA for 1 year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":33646,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-33645","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}