US support is important because India’s Food Security Act, passed in 2013, ran into WTO rules that keep a country’s domestic policies from distorting international trade. A move to cash transfers, for both consumers and producers, is more practical today than it was four years ago. The key takeaway was that despite these implementation glitches, the initial user-survey response of 39% of the beneficiaries preferring cash transfers had changed to 65% by the survey’s third round. This could continue for a couple of years after the capability of starting universal cash transfers is achieved. Should the government start working towards cash transfers rather than continuing with the public distribution system?

Source: Mint December 18, 2017 18:22 UTC