DHAKA: India plans to subsidise wheat, rice and cereals for some 800 million people under a US$20 billion scheme to cut malnutrition and ease poverty.

The Food Security Bill, which is expected to be approved by India’s president, guarantees citizens a legal right to food.

India has some of the world’s worst poverty and malnutrition with two-thirds of its 1.2 billion people poor and half of the country’s children malnourished.

The new scheme allows those who qualify to buy 5 kilograms of rice a month for 3 rupees a kilogram.

Wheat will cost 2 rupees a kilogram, and for cereals the cost is 1 rupee, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1657 HRS, SEPT 03, 2013
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