IMF lauds India’s PM garib kalyan anna yojana program

IMF lauds India’s PM garib kalyan anna yojana program

What is the news :

• International Monetary Fund (IMF) has lauded India’s food subsidy program which prevented the increased prevalence of extreme poverty in the country during Covid-19.
• In a report the IMF has said, the expansion of food transfers and subsidies make it an important instrument for poverty alleviation. Appreciating the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana, the report demonstrated that the program provided insurance to the poor and prevented an increase in the prevalence of extreme poverty in the country.

• It stated that doubling of entitlements in 2020 during pandemic helped maintain extreme poverty at the low 0.8 percent level. It also said, without any food subsidies, extreme poverty in the pandemic years would have increased by 1.05 per cent.
• The report said that poverty in the country declined the fastest during the period 2014 to 2019. The report also stated that social safety net provided by the expansion of country’s food subsidy program absorbed a major part of the pandemic shock. This illustrates the robustness of India’s social safety architecture as it withstood one of the world’s biggest income shocks.

About IMF :

• The International Monetary Fund(IMF) is an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries.
• Its stated mission is “working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world
• MD and Chairwoman of the IMF – Kristalina Georgieva,
• First deputy  Managing Director – Gita gopinath.

PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana
About the scheme :

• Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojanais a food security welfare scheme announced by the Government of India on March 26 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in India.
• The program is operated by the Department of Food and Public Distributionunder the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.

Current minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution- Piyush Goyal ( rajyasabha MP from Maharashtra)

• The scheme aims to feed the poorest citizens of India by providing grain through the Public Distribution System, to all the priority households (ration card holders and those identified by the Antyodaya Anna Yojana scheme).
• PMGKAY provides 5 kg of rice or wheat (according to regional dietary preferences) per person and 1 kg of dal to each family holding a ration card.
• The scale of this welfare scheme makes it the largest food security program in the world.

Eligibility :

• Families belonging to the Below Poverty Line – Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and Priority Households (PHH) categories will be eligible for the scheme.
• PHH are to be identified by State Governments/Union Territory Administrations as per criteria evolved by them. AAY families are to be identified by States/UTs as per the criteria prescribed by the Central Government:
• Households headed by widows or terminally ill persons or disabled persons or persons aged 60 years or more with no assured means of subsistence or societal support.
• Widows or terminally ill persons or disabled persons or persons aged 60 years or more or single women or single men with no family or societal support or assured means of subsistence.
• All primitive tribal households.
• Landless agriculture labourers, marginal farmers, rural artisans/craftsmen such as potters, tanners, weavers, blacksmiths, carpenters, slum dwellers, and persons earning their livelihood on daily basis in the informal sector like porters, coolies, rickshaw pullers, hand cart pullers, fruit and flower sellers, snake charmers, rag pickers, cobblers, destitutes  and other similar categories in both rural and urban areas.
• All eligible Below Poverty Line families of HIV positive persons

Phases :

• Phase-I and Phase-II of this scheme was operational from April to June, 2020 and July to November, 2020 respectively.
• Phase-III of the scheme was operational from May to June, 2021.
• Phase-IV of the scheme during July-November, 2021 and Phase V from December 2021 till March, 2022
• The PMGKAY scheme for Phase VI from April-September, 2022 would entail an estimated additional food subsidy of Rs. Rs. 80,000 Crore.

Recent news about PMGKAY ( Important)

PM Garib kalyan anna yojana has extended till September 2022

• In keeping with the concern and sensitivity towards poor and vulnerable sections of society,the Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has extended the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PM-GKAY) scheme for another six months i.e., till September 2022 (Phase VI).
• The Phase-V of PM-GKAY scheme was to end in March 2022. It may be recalled that the PM-GKAY has been under implementation since April 2020, as the largest food security program in the world.

Corpus :

• The Government has spent approximately Rs. 2.60 Lakh Crore so far and another Rs. 80,000 Crore will be spent over the next 6 months till September 2022 taking the total expenditure under PM-GKAY to nearly Rs. 3.40 Lakh Crore.

Benefits :

• This will cover nearly 80 crore beneficiaries across India and like before would be fully funded by the Government of India.
• Even though the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly abated and economic activities are gathering momentum, this PM-GKAY extension would ensure that no poor household goes to bed without food during this time of recovery.
• Under the extended PM-GKAY each beneficiary will get additional 5 kg free ration per person per month in addition to his normal quota of foodgrains under the NFSA. This means that every poor household would get nearly double the normal quantity of ration.
• It is worth highlighting that the Government had allocated about 759 LMT of free foodgrains under the PM-GKAY till Phase V. With another 244 LMT of free foodgrains under this extension (Phase VI), the aggregate allocation of free foodgrains under the PM-GKAY now stand at 1,003 LMT of foodgrains.

Recent news about IMF :

• Cash-strapped Sri Lanka has secured a $1bn credit line from India to buy urgently needed food and medicine, officials say, as the IMF confirms it will consider discussing a possible bailout.
• The South Asian island nation is suffering its worst economic crisissince independence in 1948, with crippling shortages of essentials and fears it will default on its foreign debt or ask bondholders to take a “haircut” on repayments.