NITI Aayog has invited bids for a Central Coordinating Agency that can assess and evaluate the efficacy of the National Food Security and Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) subsidy schemes. The aim is to curb wasteful expenditure, weed out corruption and pilferage, and ascertain whether the benefits are reaching the intended beneficiaries.

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"The Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office (DMEO), National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, Government of India, intends to engage a consultancy firm to support the 'Central Coordinating Agency for the Evaluation of the National Food Security Act and LPG Subsidy,'" the RFP stated, adding that "those interested can apply through the Government e Marketplace Portal (GeM)."

Despite large spending on food subsidies, gains on the food security front and nutritional outcomes remain slow, with India still accounting for approximately 30 percent of the global burden on hunger.

Enacted in 2013, the National Food Security Act (NFSA) provides a legal mandate for the distribution of food grains at subsidised prices through a network of schemes such as the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), and Mid-Day-Meal (MDM) scheme.

The cost of implementing the food subsidy under TPDS was Rs 4,22,618.11 crores in 2021 (revised estimate). The cost of implementing MDM and ICDS was Rs 12,900 crores and Rs 17,252.21 crores (revised estimate), respectively.

"More than 1/3rd of children less than 5 years are stunted (35.5 percent, NFHS-V, 2019-20), one-quarter of adolescents aged 10-14 years have low body-mass-index (BMI) for their age (24 percent, CNNS, 2016-18), and more than half of all women aged 15-59 years and 15-19 years are anaemic (57 percent and 59.1 percent, NFHS-V, 2019-20)," the document showed.

Likewise, India is the third largest energy consumer after China and the United States, with demand for oil and gas burgeoning in the past few years.

At present, LPG consumption has jumped to 12.3 percent of total petroleum consumption, compared to 1.13 percent of kerosene. The ongoing schemes, such as Pradhan Mantri Ujjawala Yojana (PMUY) and direct benefit transfer (DBT) will further increase the usage of LPG, making their evaluation imperative.

The finalisation of evaluation reports is set towards the end of FY25.

(Edited by : Ajay Vaishnav)

First Published:Sept 26, 2023 8:05 PM IST