GoM Okays food bill draft: A high-level inter-ministerial panel approved the draft national food security bill, which the Centre expects to place before Parliament in monsoon session beginning August 1; headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, agreed on the bill’s major provisions. Bolivia is the only other nation with a similar law. Among the major provisions, the Centre will hand out subsidised food to 75% of rural households, of which 46% forms the so-called ‘priority category’ or those living below the poverty line (BPL). Each individual from BPL families will get a monthly quota of 7 kg of rice, wheat or millets for Rs3, Rs2 or Rs1 respectively. The entitlements for rural households above the poverty line, or the ‘general category’, however, will be fixed within the next few days. They could either be 3 kg or 4 kg for an individual each month. On the other hand, the food law will cover 50% of India’s urban households, of which 28% form the BPL category. Such households will get grains at a cost linked to the price at which the Centre buys from farmers, also called the minimum support price. Even so, they will be cheaper than market rates. India’s headcount of BPL people is decided on the basis of a combination of 13 socio-economic parameters, including daily expenditure of Rs. 20, while World Bank estimates a quarter of India’s billion people will be living in poverty by 2015 or earn less than Rs100 a day.