London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

Modi says there’s enough food for India during coronavirus lockdown, but supply chains are choked

India has unveiled a US$22 billion package to provide food rations and cash transfers to about 800 million people hit by the coronavirus lockdown. Although India had a record harvest and has enough reserves, there are concerns about the food supply chain disruptions, especially for the poor

When Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that a 21-day nationwide lockdown would take effect from Wednesday to stem the spread of the deadly coronavirus, anxious Indians thronged grocery shops and vegetable stores in a spate of panic buying.

But authorities were quick to offer reassurances of sufficient grains such as wheat and rice for the country’s 1.3 billion people for the next four months, thanks to record harvests.

On Thursday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced an initial 1.7 trillion rupee (US$22.5 billion) package chiefly targeting poor households, while prioritising food distribution.

Under the newly launched “Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Jojana” (Prime Minister’s Poor Welfare Scheme), each individual who already benefited from a subsidised public distribution system will be able to receive an additional five kilograms of either wheat or rice, and each household will get one kilogram of pulses free of cost for the next three months. The package will benefit about 800 million people.

Direct cash transfers of between 500 and 2,000 rupees will also be made to the most economically vulnerable, such as farmers, daily wage labourers, construction workers, disabled people, poor widows, and women self-help groups.

“No one will go hungry,” Sitharaman promised.

India’s Covid-19 cases reached 649 on Thursday, with 13 deaths.

The Food Corporation of India (FCI) – a government agency tasked with distributing food throughout the country – said it would have 100 million tonnes of grains in its warehouses by the end of April, compared with an annual requirement of up to 60 million tonnes.

“We will fill it up to 100 per cent soon. We’ve told the state governments to take grains as much as they require. The central government has now said the states can take up to three months worth stock in advance,” R.D. Nazeem, the FCI’s executive director for the south zone, told This Week in Asia as he listed the stockpiles in each state.

“We’ve procured enough sanitisers and masks for all our workers. Nowhere in the country will there be any food shortage. That’s for sure,” said Nazeem.



But concerns persist over the country’s food supply chain, given that interstate travel has been severely curtailed under the lockdown, with passenger train services and domestic flights suspended. Residents have been told to leave home only to get food supplies and access medical care, and warned they could face up to two years in jail and an unspecified financial penalty if they flout the rules.

Shopkeepers were worrying about keeping their stores open on Wednesday, complaining that suppliers were being barred from entering cities.

“I am getting milk, eggs and bread. But let’s say on an average, I get 100 packets of bread, today I’ve only got 20,” said a Delhi shopkeeper who identified himself as Pradeep.

“I’m giving it to people as and when they come. I’m not sure how long the existing stock is going to last,” he said.

There have been reports of police officers tasked with enforcing the lockdown not letting in supplies due to a misunderstanding of the regulations. Traders have also expressed confusion over which goods will continue to flow in and out of the world’s seventh-biggest economy.

Supply trucks and buyers have faced difficulties entering Asia’s largest fresh produce wholesale market, Azadpur Subzi Mandi, in the capital New Delhi.

Fears of food supply disruptions are especially acute for India’s poor and members of its informal sector, which make up 90 per cent of the workforce. About 450 million people work in daily wage jobs while more than 300 million people live below the poverty line and 1.8 million are homeless.

“Our first concern is food, not the virus,” said Suresh Kumar, 60, a bicycle rickshaw rider in New Delhi who supports a family of six on his daily earnings of 300 rupees (US$4). “I don’t know how I will manage.”

While the country grows enough food for its entire population, it is not able to feed at least millions on a daily basis. Bottlenecked supply chain, inadequate logistics, food wastage and sharp societal inequalities keep the country ranked at 102 among 117 countries in the Global Hunger Index.

Kavitha Kuruganti, national convenor of the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture, a group that promotes food supply and distribution, said: “To ease the supply chains, we are suggesting that the government take up village-level mobile procurement of a set of food items beyond rice and wheat, and then distribute the same to urban poor and others who want to order, like retailers and restaurants.”

Some state governments such as Tamil Nadu and Karnataka started initiatives to offer free food in subsidised canteens run by the government, though Karnataka later stopped this as officials could not manage the swelling crowd.

Kerala became the first state to announce the home delivery of bundles of food essentials to the poor, while in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state with 223 million people, volunteers were drafted in for door-to-door deliveries of food rations. About 2 million informal workers in the state registered on a government database had 1,000 rupees (US$13) deposited in their bank accounts.

Police in Assam started handing out rice in some of the poorest districts.

In New Delhi, authorities teamed up with charities and aid groups to map out areas where the poor congregate, and distributed 500 hot meals.

The government has also reportedly identified thousands of sensitive clusters in major metropolitan areas where a shortage of food and water could potentially lead to unrest.

Uma Lele, the president-elect of the International Association of Agricultural Economists, said the government should provide informal workers with an income during this lockdown period.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
×