Subsidizing private goods such as food is quite common in developing countries. The National Food Security Act (NFSA) passed recently by the Indian Parliament offers cereals, albeit in limited amounts, at highly subsidized prices to the bottom 75% and 50% of the rural and urban populations (respectively) in a country of more than 1.2 billion. It has been rightly hailed as the largest welfare program ever undertaken in a country to provide nutrition and food security to its poor. Passed in an election year, it was supposed to deliver rich political dividends to the party of the government of the day.