Public distribution of food in India: A clarification

Abstract

In a recent note in this journal on the public distribution of food in India, Howes and Jha disputed a view earlier advanced by us that there ‘is no evidence of any serious urban bias’ in the system. This note recapitulates the rationale for the measure used by us to evaluate the system and clarifies why we believe the issue of rural-urban bias is somewhat redundant, and what kind of policy mix is needed to address the objectives served by the public distribution system.