What are the reformative steps taken by the Government to make food grain distribution system more effective?

India's food grain distribution rests on the Targeted Public Distribution System (PDS), strengthened by the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, which gives about two-thirds of the population a legal right to subsidised grain. The old system suffered from leakages, ghost beneficiaries, diversion and inclusion-exclusion errors, prompting a series of reforms.

Reformative steps

• End-to-end computerisation: digitisation of ration cards and the supply chain to track grain from procurement to the fair-price shop.
• Aadhaar seeding and biometric authentication at electronic Point of Sale (ePoS) machines to eliminate bogus cards.
• One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC): portability allowing migrants to draw their entitlement anywhere in the country.
• Depot Online System and Annavitran portal for real-time stock and inter-state movement monitoring.
• Direct Benefit Transfer of food subsidy piloted in some Union Territories.
• Fortification of rice distributed through PDS to tackle anaemia.

Outcomes

These measures have curbed leakages, weeded out crores of fake cards, and proved their worth during the pandemic when ONORC and the free-grain PMGKAY reached millions of migrants. Challenges of exclusion errors, storage losses and last-mile delivery remain, requiring continuous technological and governance upgrades.