Food Security in India. Can India afford it? Can they afford not to have it?

Linked below is an interesting analysis of India's new Food Security Act by the International Monetary Fund. The Act creates significant subsidies on rice, cereals and other grains in an effort to ensure that the Indian population can afford to eat, but the IMF also identifies the short and long term financial burdens that such a program will place on India's treasury. It will be interesting to see what kinds of near-term measurable effects are achieved by this legislation, outside of the immediate financial burden that any straight-line accounting could demonstrate. Depending on what effects are measured and to what degree they affect Indians could determine future legislative approaches food security legislation for many other nations.

http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/scr/2014/cr1457.pdf