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India's Indira canteen: The best meal you can buy for 13 cents

bbc.co.uk

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Re: India's Indira canteen: The best meal you can buy for 13 cents

#31

Post by JumpCrisscross »

mark212 wrote: post #16
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #2

> Economists say the canteens are a burden on the exchequer but they are a hit with politicians in a country where hundreds of millions of people live on less than a dollar a day The difference between these projects and soup kitchens is these are chiefly political projects. The state borrows to pay for patronage and largesse. No doubt, the vendors were not selected through an open auction.

maybe that's not so bad. Wouldn't it be great to have political parties competing as to who best can provide food to the poor?

> Wouldn't it be great to have political parties competing as to who best can provide food to the poor?

Not if the food is being bought from cronies with borrowed money. Indian agriculture is notoriously inefficient [1].

Better institutions would upgrade the farms, thereby reducing the price of food, and use some of the surplus wealth to educate, and upgrade the lifestyles of, the masses. TL; DR Approximate the Industrial Revolution, with the benefits of hindsight. This won't happen, however, because 100 poor farmers dependent on your political handouts are more valuable than those same farmers a little bit wealthier, and a little bit smarter.

That said, we're talking about the world's largest democracy. All in all, the system is performing well enough.

[1] http://www.theglobaleconomy.com/rankings/Agriculture_product...

Re: India's Indira canteen: The best meal you can buy for 13 cents

#32

Post by shostack »

AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #29
nocoder wrote: post #12

I have seen these in bangalore, in fact there is one very close to my office. One of the things that concerns me with such projects is that how they effect other eateries in the area. The one near my office that opened recently is on a street with about 5 other eateries. Having a eatery which is subsidized by government distorts this local market and adversely affects the other businesses in the area since they also…

That would really depend on what the target demographic was of those neighboring eateries, wouldn't it? I'll use an American analogy to illustrate, and so I'm sorry in advance if it doesn't translate well. In the Washington D.C. area (where I have several friends working), the restaurants are overwhelmingly high-end. A meal at a standard Panera bread is one of the more affordable options, and costs you somewhere betw…

Without judging people's situations, I have to wonder at why people earning minimum wage would be eating out at Panera vs bringing lunch from home for much less money.

Re: India's Indira canteen: The best meal you can buy for 13 cents

#33

Post by sk0g »

prameya wrote: post #22
mulvya wrote: post #10

It says, "Each dish costs a mere five rupees, or about 13 cents". Except that, at present, 1 USD = ~65 INR, so more like 8 cents.

I think the article is from bbc; so maybe for pound sterling it is 5 cents?

England uses Pounds, Shillings and Pence.

Re: India's Indira canteen: The best meal you can buy for 13 cents

#34

Post by shostack »

rbanffy wrote: post #26
CamTin wrote: post #4

Similar to the (sadly, fading) Bar Mleczny in Poland: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_mleczny Simple food (Polish food obviously, not Indian), government-subsidized, targeted at students, the elderly, the poor, but not means-tested or anything so technically anyone can get a plate, including foreigners, for very cheap. Typically very good food, but horrible customer service (old women yelling at you to make up your…

> horrible customer service Things like that can easily become the identity of the place.

Can confirm. Visit Wiener Circle or Billy Goat Tavern in Chicago (especially at night) for an entertaining service experience.

Re: India's Indira canteen: The best meal you can buy for 13 cents

#35

Post by tryingagainbro »

should extend this to a lot of places:

"In fact, Guatemala has the highest rate of malnutrition in the Western Hemisphere: 50 percent of the population is stunted and, in rural Mayan villages, that figure gets as high as 80 percent." * We compared a group of native 9-year-old Mayans and a group of 9-year-old Mayans raised in the United States. The difference was dramatic. The American Mayan children who have access to better food are, on average, six inches taller than those raised in Guatemala.* http://abcnews.go.com/Health/malnutrition-severe-stunting-gu...

Re: India's Indira canteen: The best meal you can buy for 13 cents

#36

Post by abhi3 »

shostack wrote: post #32
AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would really depend on what the target demographic was of those neighboring eateries, wouldn't it? I'll use an American analogy to illustrate, and so I'm sorry in advance if it doesn't translate well. In the Washington D.C. area (where I have several friends working), the restaurants are overwhelmingly high-end. A meal at a standard Panera bread is one of the more affordable options, and costs you somewhere betw…

Without judging people's situations, I have to wonder at why people earning minimum wage would be eating out at Panera vs bringing lunch from home for much less money.

Most people are migrant laborers, they don't have families in the city or home.

Re: India's Indira canteen: The best meal you can buy for 13 cents

#37

Post by _nothing »

abhi3 wrote: post #36
shostack wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without judging people's situations, I have to wonder at why people earning minimum wage would be eating out at Panera vs bringing lunch from home for much less money.

Most people are migrant laborers, they don't have families in the city or home.

What does that have to do the above reply?

Re: India's Indira canteen: The best meal you can buy for 13 cents

#38

Post by SwellJoe »

shostack wrote: post #32
AdmiralAsshat wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would really depend on what the target demographic was of those neighboring eateries, wouldn't it? I'll use an American analogy to illustrate, and so I'm sorry in advance if it doesn't translate well. In the Washington D.C. area (where I have several friends working), the restaurants are overwhelmingly high-end. A meal at a standard Panera bread is one of the more affordable options, and costs you somewhere betw…

Without judging people's situations, I have to wonder at why people earning minimum wage would be eating out at Panera vs bringing lunch from home for much less money.

There's a growing mobile homeless or partially homeless (living in storage facilities or an RV without services) population in many of the more expensive cities; they live in the city for work, because that's where the jobs are, but can't actually afford to live there. Obviously, this isn't everyone who eats out who can't really afford it, but it's definitely some. If you don't have a fridge, you don't have a stove, and you have no way to keep or prepare fresh foods, you have to eat out more often. I've known lots of folks in this situation (I live in an RV and travel a lot and run into all sorts of people). They often do keep bread and peanut butter in their car or RV or whatever, but they have pretty limited options. It's not healthy or sustainable to eat that way. So, they end up eating out a lot.

Our cities are becoming wholly inhospitable to poor people, and food is no exception. And, someone making $12.50/hour probably can't really afford rent in a city like DC, either.

Re: India's Indira canteen: The best meal you can buy for 13 cents

#39

Post by baybal2 »

nocoder wrote: post #12

I have seen these in bangalore, in fact there is one very close to my office. One of the things that concerns me with such projects is that how they effect other eateries in the area. The one near my office that opened recently is on a street with about 5 other eateries. Having a eatery which is subsidized by government distorts this local market and adversely affects the other businesses in the area since they also…

I remember my time in Shenzhen back in 2007 (or in 2009 if my memory fails me) when I was transiting through the city to Singapore.

Back then, I was surprised how much even seemingly low income people were dishing out on food.

When line 9 was just opened, there was no underground connection in between it and line 4 in Shangmeilin. Food cart owners who set up shops on the sandlot in between stations, were allegedly having turnovers closing on 5k usd per day in first months after opening given how many commuters going to and from factories were passing by that place.

Food there was rather basic, but quite expensive. 30CNY for a big bowl of beef noodle soup, more than double than what you expected for street food back then, yet I have not seen a single time when there was no lineup.

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