India has been driving a hard bargain at the Word Trade Organisation since its July meeting, when the Modi government refused to ratify the Trade Facilitation Agreement that had been agreed upon as part of the so-called Bali Package in 2013. India has demanded that it should be allowed more flexibility with food subsidies under the agreement.
Under current WTO rules, countries are required to limit the value of food subsidies to 10% of the total value of food grain production. That value is based on grain prices between 1986 and 1988. Food grain prices in the country today are much higher than the prices two decades ago and, as a result, India willy-nilly violates the subsidy rule.
The government’s hardline stance at the WTO earned it brickbats from the international community in July but New Delhi has been gathering support since. In August, the United Nation's International Fund for Agriculture Development backed India, saying that a country with 1.2 billion people must do what it can to fulfill the mammoth task of feeding them. India has also managed to get Pakistan, Bangladesh and Russia to support its position, the Hindustan Times reported.
The latest data from the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s State of Food Insecurity report highlights how India has the largest number of undernourished citizens: 191 million people. Though India has made progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goal for 2015 of halving the proportion of the undernourished in the country from 1990 levels, it isn't quite there yet.
India is also very far behind on the more stringent World Food Summit target of halving the absolute numbers of undernourished people by next year.
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Under current WTO rules, countries are required to limit the value of food subsidies to 10% of the total value of food grain production. That value is based on grain prices between 1986 and 1988. Food grain prices in the country today are much higher than the prices two decades ago and, as a result, India willy-nilly violates the subsidy rule.
The government’s hardline stance at the WTO earned it brickbats from the international community in July but New Delhi has been gathering support since. In August, the United Nation's International Fund for Agriculture Development backed India, saying that a country with 1.2 billion people must do what it can to fulfill the mammoth task of feeding them. India has also managed to get Pakistan, Bangladesh and Russia to support its position, the Hindustan Times reported.
The latest data from the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s State of Food Insecurity report highlights how India has the largest number of undernourished citizens: 191 million people. Though India has made progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goal for 2015 of halving the proportion of the undernourished in the country from 1990 levels, it isn't quite there yet.
India is also very far behind on the more stringent World Food Summit target of halving the absolute numbers of undernourished people by next year.