[Stoves] communal canteens

[Nikhil Desai]

Anil, Andrew:

Before these Indira Kitchens in Karnataka there were Amma Kitchens in Tamil
Nadu. By late Jaylalitha, the political mother (amma) or Indira of Tamil
Nadu.

One story in Jan 2017 was headlined Indira Canteen kitchens to cost Rs.
28.5 lakh each
<http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/indira-canteen-kitchens-to-cost-rs-285-lakh-each/article18789972.ece>.
That is about US$ 41,000 per canteen but probably a large part would be for
capital budget - building, furniture, cooking equipment and initial stocks
of ingredients and consumables.

The same story says the current year budget for the entire scheme was Rs
100 crore or roughly US$15 million.

Going by what I know to be the prices of ingredients and fuels, my
approximate guess is that the enterprise subsidizes capital equipment,
staff salaries, transport, fuel and electricity, but that the USc 7 per
meal probably covers at least 60% of the ingredient costs.

Put another way, food revenues probably cover at least 40-50% of the
operating costs (including salaries, fuel and electricity, food
ingredients, consumables). "Operating subsidy per meal" is about 3 USc.
Every bit worth it (compared to selling aDALYs at US$4,000-12,000 per
aDALY. If an LPG stove generates one aDALY - a computed increase in healthy
life of one year - it would be priced in this range, with quite a bit of
money going to pay the middlemen and middlewomen.)

For all I know, government canteens work on similar principles, raising the
question just what is a "subsidy".

Nikhil

PS: An aside -- the last I checked, the Palgrave's Encyclopedia of
Economics did not have an entry for the term "subsidy". A colleague
startled me some 20 years ago coming in my office and asking, "Nikhil, what
is a subsidy?" After some wrangling, my jaw dropped - "Are you saying there
is no general definition of subsidy except a negative tax?" He smirked and
walked away. I couldn't prove him wrong. This is why I have been irritated
by objections to subsidies per se. There are good ways and bad ways of
applying government financial support, but subsidies are what governments
do and should do "right way". That at any rate is my prime motivation
participating in this list; what is worth public budgets and how much?

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nikhil Desai
(US +1) 202 568 5831
*Skype: nikhildesai888*


On Mon, Nov 20, 2017 at 9:41 AM, Andrew Heggie <aj.heggie at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 20 November 2017 at 14:27, nari phaltan <nariphaltan at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Andrew,
> >
> > This subsidy is nothing compared to $6 billion/yr.that the US government
> > gives to farmers to grow corn for producing alcohol. All governments give
> > subsidies to their citizens. In a malnourished country like India this is
> > the best use of subsidy. This is far better than the income tax sops
> (also
> > subsidy) given to rich.
>
>
> Anil I was not criticising the idea of subsidies for these canteens,
> more wondering what the subsidy per meal may be.
>
> Overall I was wondering about the efficiency of cooking meals
> communally compared with a biomass stove in the home as it has been
> mentioned before that it makes more sense.
>
> Andrew
>
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