India will end its COVID-19 era free food programme on Dec. 31 and replace it with a cheaper programme that will save the government nearly $20 billion in the next 12 months.
Late on Friday, India's Food and Trade Minister Piyush Goyal said the government will stop the free food programme after 28 months as the economic situation has improved since COVID-19 cases and restrictions have eased.
The programme provided poor families with 5 kg of foodgrains each month in addition to other highly subsidised foodgrains. It started in April 2020 and has cost the government nearly $47 billion. Now the government will make the highly subsidised foodgrain free for the next 12 months, Goyal said. This gives 35 kg of food grain every month to families at the cost of 1 Indian rupees to 3 Indian rupees . Millions of poor households benefit while some priority groups get 5 kilogram foodgrains per person for the same price.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
COVID Isolated People. Long COVID Makes It WorseThere's no question that COVID-19 cut people off from one another -- but for those who have long COVID, that disconnect has never really ended.
Read more »
Free Popup COVID Testing Sites in Delaware to Close on Dec. 28Curative, the pop-up COVID testing trailers, will no longer offer free testing in Delaware starting December 28, but other options for tests are still available. NBC10’s Tim Furlong shows us where you can find these tests once Curative trailers close.
Read more »
Ohio reports 17,891 more COVID-19 cases: weekly coronavirus update for Thursday, Dec. 22Since the beginning of 2021, there have been 25,774 deaths among people reported as unvaccinated, and 1,445 among people reported to be fully vaccinated.
Read more »
China reports zero new COVID deaths for Dec 22, same as a day earlierChina reported no new COVID-19 deaths for Dec. 22, compared with zero the previous day, the National Health Commission said on Friday.
Read more »
India to test random 2% of international travellers for COVIDIndia will start randomly testing 2% of all international passengers arriving at its airports for COVID-19, the country's health minister, Mansukh Mandaviya, told parliament on Thursday.
Read more »
India on alert for new variants as Covid wave sweeps China | CNNIndia's health minister has advised the public to take precautions against Covid-19, including getting vaccinated and wearing masks, as the country remains on alert for potential new variants that could emerge from the wave of infections sweeping neighboring China.
Read more »