But the point in discussion is why do people need to be provided food for free? Clearly if they are not able to buy for a real long time- This indicates they are not earning enough. So fixing that makes more sense than fixing problems in the free food program. Because if we fix the affordability issue we will not need the free food program at the first place.
Yes the distribution system is broken. I think a step to fix that was tried- FDI in retail was good. Companies could buy directly from the farmers, eliminating middle men and the entire inefficient distribution cycle. But I and you know well the political opposition to those reforms.
Substitute free food for welfare and it might make more sense.
Also your goal is good in the long term. In the short term we will be taking a lot of stop gap measures to reach that point.
I don't think we have the option for mass production/industrialization to boot strap our unskilled labor.
I know of some people who are building startups aimed at giving people in slums more usable skills - like carpentry, plumbing and so on. Those private sector moves will still bear fruit only to a moderate extent at best in generation N=0.
Its only after we get that to reach N=2 and beyond that it should start making an impact.
In short, for us, its going to be a hugely drawn out battle.
I hope that changes, and I may easily be wrong, looking at things from this scale (mobile VAS could suddenly create tons of alpha for its users or who knows what).
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First hand horror stories again:
(Do note I am pro FDI)
A disturbing case that I received second hand was regards how Reliance handled their farmers.
For other HNers, Reliance is a huge (gigantic) Indian conglomerate which does nearly everything.
Reliance encouraged its producers to use a series of crop enhancing pesticides and chemicals which had long term negative impacts to the farmer's land.
At the end of it, the land was fallow. At which juncture Reliance washed their hands of it.
Just to be pedantic: I don't think it's literally free, it's subsidized.
"Companies could buy directly from the farmers": this has nothing to do with FDI in retail. Indian companies are free to do so already. The reason it isn't happening has probably to do with small landholdings, bad public infrastructure like roads, electricity etc. Hence it probably makes sense for somebody to specialize in aggregating the output of multiple producers (aka middleman).
Also transport of goods within India isn't friction-free (AFAIK agri. products can't be transported across states w/o a permit). Yet another opportunity for specialization aka middleman.
These things won't just go away because FDI is allowed in retail. YMMV.
But the point in discussion is why do people need to be provided food for free? Clearly if they are not able to buy for a real long time- This indicates they are not earning enough. So fixing that makes more sense than fixing problems in the free food program. Because if we fix the affordability issue we will not need the free food program at the first place.
Yes the distribution system is broken. I think a step to fix that was tried- FDI in retail was good. Companies could buy directly from the farmers, eliminating middle men and the entire inefficient distribution cycle. But I and you know well the political opposition to those reforms.