{"id":11475,"date":"2017-10-31T16:29:17","date_gmt":"2017-10-31T10:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=11475"},"modified":"2017-10-31T16:29:17","modified_gmt":"2017-10-31T10:59:17","slug":"public-distribution-system-in-india-an-overview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/public-distribution-system-in-india-an-overview\/","title":{"rendered":"Public Distribution System in India: An overview"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Context<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Public Distribution System (PDS) needs to be systematic and lenient,especially towards the poor.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>What is Public Distribution System?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Public Distribution System (PDS) evolved as a system for distribution of food grains at affordable prices and management of emergency situations.<\/li>\n<li>Public distribution system\u00a0(PDS) is an Indian\u00a0food security\u00a0system.<\/li>\n<li>Established by the\u00a0Government of India\u00a0under\u00a0Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution\u00a0and are managed jointly by\u00a0state governments in India.<\/li>\n<li>It distributes subsidized food and non-food items to\u00a0India&#8217;s poor. This scheme was launched in June 1947.<\/li>\n<li>It functions through a network of Fair Price Shops at a subsidized price on a recurring basis.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>How did PDS evolve?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Till 1992, PDS was a general entitlement scheme for all consumers without any specific target.<\/li>\n<li>In 1992, PDS became\u00a0RPDS (Revamped\u00a0PDS)\u00a0focussing the poor families, especially in the far-flung, hilly, remote and inaccessible areas.<\/li>\n<li>In 1997 RPDS became\u00a0TPDS (Targeted PDS)\u00a0which established\u00a0Fair Price Shops\u00a0for the distribution of food grains at subsidized rates.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>What is Targeted Public Distribution System?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) was introduced in India from June 1997.<\/li>\n<li>Under TPDS, Central government is responsible for procurement, allocation and transportation of the food grains up to the designated depots of the Food Corporation of India.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>What is the significance of the Public distribution system in India?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The following are the\u00a0advantages\u00a0of the public distribution system:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It has helped in stabilising food prices and making food available to consumers at affordable prices.<\/li>\n<li>It has helped in avoiding hunger and famine by supplying food from surplus regions of the country to deficient regions.<\/li>\n<li>The system of minimum support price and procurement has contributed to increase in food grain production.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>What are the limitationsof the distribution system in India?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The following are the\u00a0disadvantages\u00a0of the public distribution system;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Instances of hunger occur despite granaries being full.This points to certain lacunae or inefficiency in the system.<\/li>\n<li>High level of buffer stocks often leads to wastage of food grains and deterioration in quality.<\/li>\n<li>The storage of foodgrains inculcates high carrying costs on the government.<\/li>\n<li>The provision of minimum support price has encouraged farmers to divert land from production of coarse grains that are consumed by poor, to rice and wheat.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>How does TPDS function?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The steps involved are<\/p>\n<p>(1)\u00a0Procurement of food grains<\/p>\n<p>(2) Storage of food grains<\/p>\n<p>(3) Allocation\u00a0for families<\/p>\n<p>(4) Transportation of food grains.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>What are the suggested ways?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The need of the hour is PDS reforms to ensure that public distribution functions the way it is intended.\u00a0Technology based reforms are suggested.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Technology Based reforms: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>End to end computerization would bring in transparency in the whole process. It would help to prevent leakages and diversion of food grains to a great extent.<\/li>\n<li>The different type\u2019s reforms undertaken by different states are:<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Adhaar Linked and digitized ration cards:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>This allows online entry and verification of beneficiary data. It also enables online tracking of monthly entitlements and off-take of foodgrains by beneficiaries.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Computerized Fair Price Shops:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>FPS automated by installing \u2018Point of Sale \u2018device to swap the ration card. It authenticates the beneficiaries and records the quantity of subsidized grains given to a family.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>DBT:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Under the Direct Benefit Transfer scheme, cash is transferred to the beneficiaries\u2019 account in lieu of foodgrains subsidy component.<\/li>\n<li>They will be free to buy food grains from anywhere in the market.<\/li>\n<li>It is estimated that cash transfers alone could save the exchequer Rs.30,000 crore every year.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Use of GPS technology:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Use of Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to track the movement of trucks carrying foodgrains from state depots to FPS which can help to prevent diversion.<\/li>\n<li><strong>SMS-based monitoring:\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Allows monitoring by citizens so they can register their mobile numbers and send\/receive SMS alerts during dispatch and arrival of TPDS commodities<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Use of web-based citizen\u2019s portal<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Public Grievance Redressal Machineries, such as a toll-free number for call centers to register complaints or suggestions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Context The Public Distribution System (PDS) needs to be systematic and lenient,especially towards the poor. What is Public Distribution System? The Public Distribution System (PDS) evolved as a system for distribution of food grains at affordable prices and management of emergency situations. Public distribution system\u00a0(PDS) is an Indian\u00a0food security\u00a0system. Established by the\u00a0Government of India\u00a0under\u00a0Ministry of&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/public-distribution-system-in-india-an-overview\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Public Distribution System in India: An overview<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":11476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bills-policies","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/pds.jpg?fit=1008%2C507&ssl=1","views":{"total":594,"cached_at":""},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}