2. WHAT IS PDS?
Public Distribution
System (PDS) is a
poverty alleviation
program which
contributes towards
the social welfare of
the people by
providing essential
commodities like
rice, wheat, sugar
and kerosene at
reasonable prices.
 Principal instrument in the hands of
State Governments
 Providing safety net to the poor against
the spiralling rise in prices of essential
commodities
 Originated in the 'rationing' system
introduced by the British during the
World War I
 Important role in attaining higher levels
of the household food security
 Completely eliminating the threats of
famines from the face of the country.
 Provide to the beneficiaries two cereals,
rice and wheat and four essential
commodities viz. sugar, edible oil, soft
coke and kerosene oil
 Supply of additional items through PDS
is especially relevant in interior areas,
which are away from markets.

3. General Problems With Public
Distribution System
• Not accessible to every consumer.. About 73% did not get any food from
PDS.
• Irregular delivery schedule of FPS quota is a persistent problem in most
states.This has contributed to low off-take by consumers and hence to large
diversion of subsidised grains to the open market.
Reach and delivery
• The grains wont reach to FPS but goes to open market selling , getting the
margins which benefits the middlemen i.e. FPS owners and officials of the
distribution wing.
• .
Leakage
• This government policy aims at subsidizing price of commodities lower
than minimum support price. With the alarming inflation, the minimum
support price will bound to increase. The subsidy will henceforth
increase.
Subsidy
• Monitoring of activities of FPS through inspection by district level officials was
irregular and in effective
• In addition to leakages PDS suffers from diversions of subsidised grains to
unintended benefeciaries(APL household) because of Error of Inclusion
• The PDS sytem leads to the creation of illegal hoardings and inappropriate
storage of food grains to inflate market values.

4. Fair Price Shops : Not being FAIR
Fair price shops are
not viable. Most shops
do not display stock
statements, and bill
books are poorly
maintained. Issuance
of bills for the
transactions
undertaken is done
rarely and stock books
are improperly
maintained. Card
holders complained
about the FPS owners
charging higher prices
for commodities and
receiving less quantity
than what they are
entitled to. Shops use
unfair practices in
distribution such as
adulteration, improper
weighing, etc.
 Illiterate consumers are sold less quantity of ration through taking
their thumb prints for different quantities.
 Deceitful dealers replace good supplies received from
the F.C.I(Food Corporation of India) with inferior stock and sell FCI
stock in the black market.This leads to a great earning for owners.
 Adulteration is the most common thing which is done by FPS. Thus
compromising with the nutritional value of ration.
 Proper report of ration transactions is not maintained
 Remaining ration of FPS in open market is sold at higher margins
for their own benefits, thus reducing the government’s subsidy.
 The Fair Price dealers seldom display rate chart and quantity
available in the block-boards in front of the shop

5. IDENTIFICATION &
ISSUANCE OF BPL CARDS
In India, government has set the poverty benchmark to identify
people and family requiring government aid and assistance.
Therefore to such families a Below Poverty Line (BPL) card is issued
so that they can purchase subsidized grains from ration.
Due to Corruption many valid people are not able to get
cards. Public servants working at issuing authority, most of the time
demands money to issue a BPL card due to which many families are
denied from government subsidies.
No. of the ration cards issued are more than the actual no. of BPL
families. It leads to the illegal storage of the food and then selling
them at higher margins in market.
Many BPL families are not able to acquire ration cards either
because they are seasonal migrant workers or because they live in
unauthorized colonies

6. • rights to purchase ration from any of the FPS rather than allotted fps for helping
migrantsFlexibility in FPS
• Central govt. should provide subsidy to state govt. based on the formula and let
them decide on the subsidies for various commodities.Decentralisation of operation
• State govt. can hire a private agency to monitor the PDS process.Monitoring
• Pds units with maximum connectivity should be periodically felicitated by the
government
Regular incentives to
the performing PDS unit
• Provision for the complaints resistor for the consumer so that they can lodge
their complaints with the authorities directlycomplaints
Proposed
solutions
Implementation Impact
SOLUTION

7. BIOMETRIC RATION CARDS

9. IMPLEMENTATION
Setting Government shops
1:Establishing government shops
providing necessary commodities
especially in remote areas.
2:A person should be allowed to take
comodities of his share from any
shop,so as to make things more easy
for the people(like credit and atm card
system).
3:Person employed in these stores be
of some private company to minimize
the chances of corruption.
monitoring
1:Around 22% grain is wasted during
transportation,thus registering the
goods before supplying will ensure
track of exact no. Of items supplied
and received on the other side.This
can be implemented by using code
system(eg:barcode).
2: CCTV cameras will be there in
every FCI godown.Authorities will
monitor warehouses through its
vigilance officers and CCTV’s.
3:Surprise checking at FCI and
providing a Helpline number to
register Complaints against corrupt
officials will help to check corruption
accessibility
1:Replacing the old ration cards with
new ones which will have all
information like
Name,age,Locality,income,etc feeded
so that a person gets his share of
grains
2:Implementing Biometric (finger print
or Iris Recognition)system to wipe out
the posssibility of ghost cards
 LEVELS INVOLVED

10. IMPACT
• 1:This PDS system will cover
whole of BPL populations thus
decreasing hunger and
malnutrition.
• 2:Government should buy the
grains directly from farmers.This
will ensure that farmers get the
due benefits due to removal of
middleman system(thus
improving lives of farmers and
thus preventing them from taking
extreme measures like suicide).
• 3:As proposed by the government
Food Security Bill may get
implemented quite smoothly.
• 4:If we are successful in reducing
corruption by thorough
checking,the concept of subsidy
will be correctly implemented
leading to upliftment of poor and
needy.
CHALLENGES
• 1:Adulteration: There will always
be chances of mixing original
grains with cheap materials,like
adulterating wheat flour with rice
or maize flour,sugar with caustic
soda,chalk,etc.
• 2:It will be difficult to implement
modern technology in rural
areas(like implementaion of atm
type ration card).Even if it is
implemented it will be difficult to
maintain the instruments due to
lack of technicians in rural areas.
• 3:Replacing good quality
commodities with Sub-standard
one.
• 4:Updating the data of people
from time to time.
MITIGATION
• 1:Employing technicians in
rural areas(keeping atleast 3
in 1 district) so as to maintain
the machines.
• 2:Training should be given to
employees so as to make
them comfortable with the
system.
• 3:Setting of NGOs to make
the locals aware of
malpractices like adulteration
and ways to recognise an
adulterated product.And also
encourage them to report
about these malpractices to
vigilance committee,
• 4:Setting of vigilance
committee to check various
malpractices and punish the
wrongdoers.

11. FCI GODOWNS
Farmers
Database of warehouses
Packaging unit in FCI godown
Packed ration Packed ration
Beneficiaries mobile FPS in remote
Areas
Ration
Purchase money
SALARY
FCI database
WAREHOUSE WAREHOUSE Database of all
FPS
FPS FPS FPS FPS
FPS
Terminale-card reader
Printer
FPS Database
E ration card
linked with
Aadhar
FPS OWNER BANK FCI account

12. TEAM SAHARA
● SNEHIL RAYAL IIT MADRAS
● EKANSH VERMA IIT MADRAS
● SHANTANU RAJPUT IIT INDORE
● PRAVEEN KRISHNA IIT MADRAS
● VIJENDRA SINGH IIT MADRAS