Indian Economy Quiz: Food Security and the Public Distribution System

The correct answer is C, 2013. The National Food Security Act, often called the Right to Food Act, was passed by Parliament in 2013 and converted the subsidised grain of the Targeted Public Distribution System from a scheme benefit into a legal entitlement, enforceable through a District Grievance Redressal Officer and a State Food Commission. A, 2005, is wrong, though it is the year of two other landmark laws, the Right to Information Act and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, which is why the option is attractive. B, 2009, is wrong because the year belongs to the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act. D, 2016, is wrong; no central food security law dates from that year, which saw the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code instead. Note too that the Act was brought into force with effect from July 2013, which is why some sources give that month with the year.

The correct answer is A, 5 kg per person per month. The Act creates two categories of beneficiary. A priority household receives five kilograms of foodgrain for every member every month, so a family of five draws twenty-five kilograms. B, 35 kg per household per month, is the standing trap: that is the quantity for an Antyodaya Anna Yojana household, which is a household entitlement and does not change with the number of members. C, 10 kg per person per month, is wrong because no category under the Act carries that scale, although ten kilograms a family was the original quota of the Targeted Public Distribution System in 1997. D, 25 kg per household per month, is wrong, though it was the Antyodaya quota when the scheme began in 2000, before it was raised to thirty-five kilograms in 2002. So read the unit in each option carefully: per person in one case and per household in the other.

The correct answer is B, up to 75 per cent of the rural and up to 50 per cent of the urban population. Those two ceilings together work out to about two-thirds of the country, and the Union Government fixes the state-wise coverage within them while the states identify the households. A is wrong because the figures are reversed and reduced; no provision of the Act carries fifty and twenty-five per cent. C is wrong because the Act deliberately moved away from the poverty line as the test: the priority category is wider than the old Below Poverty Line list, and identification is left to state criteria rather than to a poverty estimate. D is wrong because the Act is not universal; it excludes a part of the population, and a universal distribution system is what India had before the targeting of 1997.

The correct answer is B, the eldest woman of the household aged eighteen or above. The Act provides that the ration card shall be issued in the name of the eldest woman of the household who is eighteen years of age or more, so that the entitlement is held by a woman; if there is no such woman, the eldest male member holds it until a female member turns eighteen. A is wrong because the eldest male is only the fallback and not the rule. C is wrong because income decides whether the household is covered at all, not who holds the card. D is wrong because the gram panchayat has a role in identification, social audit and vigilance but no power to nominate the head of a household for this purpose.

The correct answer is C, 3, 2 and 1. The Act fixed the issue price at three rupees a kilogram for rice, two rupees for wheat and one rupee for coarse grains, and provided that these prices would hold for three years from the date of commencement, after which the Central Government could revise them up to the minimum support price. A and B are wrong because they shuffle the same three figures, which is exactly how the option is set in examinations; remember the descending order, rice the dearest and coarse grain the cheapest. D is wrong because those are not statutory figures at all. From the start of 2023 the grain due under the Act has in practice been supplied free, but the prices written into the Act remain three, two and one.

The correct answer is C, 2000. The Antyodaya Anna Yojana was launched in December 2000 for one crore of the poorest households, which were given foodgrain at the lowest issue price; the quota was twenty-five kilograms a household a month at first and was raised to thirty-five kilograms in 2002. A, 1992, is wrong because that is the year of the Revamped Public Distribution System, which extended better terms to 1,775 blocks in drought-prone, desert, tribal and hill areas. B, 1997, is wrong because that is the year the Targeted Public Distribution System divided households into Below and Above Poverty Line. D, 2013, is wrong because that is the year of the National Food Security Act, which kept the Antyodaya category and its thirty-five kilogram entitlement intact. So fix the three years in order: 1992, 1997 and 2000, and this question becomes automatic.

The correct answer is B, 1965. The Food Corporation of India was established in 1965 under the Food Corporations Act of 1964, in the years of acute shortage that preceded the Green Revolution, to procure foodgrain at the support price, store it, move it across the country and issue it to the distribution system. A, 1955, is wrong, although it is the year of the Essential Commodities Act, under which the government regulates the supply and price of essential goods. C, 1972, is wrong; no body of this kind dates from that year. D, 1985, is wrong, but it is a real date in this chapter for another reason: the Agricultural Prices Commission, which had been set up in 1965, was renamed the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices in 1985. So remember 1964 for the Act and 1965 for the Corporation itself.

The correct answer is B, the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices. The Commission, set up in 1965 as the Agricultural Prices Commission and renamed in 1985, recommends the minimum support price for twenty-two mandated crops after weighing the cost of production, demand and supply, price trends and the terms of trade; the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs takes the final decision, so the Commission only advises. A is wrong because the Food Corporation of India is the agency that buys at the announced price, stores and distributes; it does not fix the price. C is wrong because the Reserve Bank of India is the monetary authority and has no role in crop prices. D is wrong because the National Statistical Office collects and publishes statistics, including crop estimates, but recommends no price.

The correct answer is C, Article 47. Article 47, a Directive Principle of State Policy, declares that the State shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and of the standard of living of its people and the improvement of public health as among its primary duties, and the same Article speaks of prohibiting intoxicating drinks and drugs that are injurious to health. A, Article 21, is a strong distractor because the Supreme Court has read the right to food into the right to life it guarantees, but Article 21 does not itself speak of nutrition. B, Article 39, is wrong; it directs the State to secure an adequate means of livelihood and to prevent the concentration of wealth. D, Article 51A, is wrong because it lists the Fundamental Duties of citizens.

The correct answer is B, 1997. The Targeted Public Distribution System was introduced in June 1997. Until then the distribution system was universal, open to any cardholder; from 1997 households were classified as Below or Above the Poverty Line and given different quotas at different prices, with the poorer group receiving a larger subsidy. A, 1992, is wrong because that is the year of the Revamped Public Distribution System, which was an area-based and not a household-based change. C, 2000, is wrong because that is the year the Antyodaya Anna Yojana added a third and poorest category. D, 2002, is wrong, although it is the year in which the monthly quota of a Below Poverty Line and an Antyodaya household was raised to thirty-five kilograms. Note also that 1992 was an area-based change and 1997 a household-based one, which is the surest way to keep the two apart.

The correct answer is A, Shanta Kumar. The High Level Committee on restructuring the Food Corporation of India, chaired by Shanta Kumar, reported in 2015. It suggested narrowing the coverage of the National Food Security Act, offering cash transfers in place of grain where beneficiaries prefer them, handing procurement to the states under the decentralised scheme, and reforming the Corporation's storage and movement. B is wrong because Bimal Jalan is associated with committees on the Reserve Bank's economic capital framework and on expenditure management. C is wrong because M. S. Swaminathan chaired the National Commission on Farmers, whose recommendation on a support price fifty per cent above the cost of production is a separate and often confused item. D is wrong because Raghuram Rajan chaired a committee on an index for measuring the backwardness of states.

The correct answer is C, not less than six thousand rupees. Besides a free meal through the local anganwadi during pregnancy and for six months after childbirth, the Act entitles every pregnant woman and lactating mother to a maternity benefit of not less than six thousand rupees, paid in instalments; women already receiving a similar benefit as government employees are excluded. A, three thousand rupees, is wrong, though candidates often recall it because the amount is paid in instalments and the first instalments are smaller. B, five thousand rupees, is wrong and is simply a plausible round figure placed to tempt a guess. D, ten thousand rupees, is wrong because no provision of the Act fixes that sum; the floor written into the Act is six thousand rupees. Note also that the benefit does not cover women already drawing a similar payment under their service conditions.