Does it mean that GoI, which wants to open up Indian Retail sector under the pretext that it would attract investment in Food / Agre SCM (I guess work a few thousand Crores) and ease inflation in India, has a surplus of of the above amount to support a free-bee scheme. However, it does not have a few thousand Cr. rupees to create the agri-infrastructure of its own, though that would still be the worst case scenario.
A few years back, GoI, of course under a more visionary leadership, proposed PPP framework to usher physical infrastructure creation in India. Alas, that vision is dead. Else, downstream agri-infrastructure including cold storage and warehouses along with much needed upstream infrastructure of irrigation channels, would have started by now. This was not to be.
Today's India would always be remembered in its history as the period when many economists were at helm of things but led India to nadir. Such a pity that a country having such a big domestic market and having achieved food self-sufficiency decades ago is facing a food-price led inflation. Here is a economy, where up to 40% fruit & vegetable produce is lost during its journey from farm to market, international conditions are blamed for food-price led inflation. Here is a economy, where govt. feels it is more prudent to spend borrowed amount in proving free-lunch to its electorate rather than creating infrastructure and policy frameworks to ensure low food prices. Here is a system, which believes that it is better to provide fish to its population rather than teaching them how to catch fishes. And, this economy and this system is headed by an economist with another economist as second-in command and another economist as head of planning. So many cooks and still all rotten foods. For today and for days, rather years, to come.
