Delivering the inaugural address at a two-day meet on “Knowledge – evidence-action: Striving towards better health outcomes”, organised by the Indian Health and Policy Association, the Chief Economic Adviser to the government of India, Mr. Kaushik Basu abhorred the fact as how 44 per cent of the food grain meant for the poor, never reaches them through the public distribution system and said that this needs to be changed.
“In the public distribution scheme, the low food grain is given to a network of small shops that are trusted with the delivery of these food grains to the poor. But we know that 44 per cent of these food grain never reaches the poor,” he said adding that “the architecture of distribution” be changed by giving “directly to the poor”.