Description

Introduction

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the economic implications

of some of the price policies that are pursued in many less dev/eloped countries

like India presumably to protect the economically vulnerable sections of the

population from violent price-fluctuations that are often caused by unbridled

operation of market forces. We consider first Government of India's policy of

purchasing food grains from the farmers at a pre-announced, government-administered procurement price and selling them off. through a public distribution

net-work to the urban and semi-urban consumers at a low price, usually called

the ration or issue price. The procurement price also acts as a support price

and is fixed at a remunerative level in order that the farmers are shielded

against market, uncertainties end the government gains command over a sizeable

a portion of the marketable surplus of food grains.