India's Search for Greater Food Security

Editor's Note: This is the first installment of a two-part series on India's grain policies and critical role in the global rice market. Click here for Part 2.

India's new Food Security Bill reflects not only the ongoing demographic challenges impeding India's rise in the region, but also New Delhi's constraints in moving away from costly populist policies. The embattled United Progressive Alliance government passed the bill, a $22 billion grain subsidization scheme, on Sept. 2, some eight months before Indians head to the polls for national elections in May 2014.