India's PDS System

A study has found India's expanded PDS under NFSA has prevented 1.8 million children from being stunted, improved dietary diversity, and boosted wages, making it a crucial safety net for food security

Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Sunday asked state-owned FCI to adopt modern technologies in its overall functioning, reduce the cost of operations and prevent any wrong-doings besides winning the trust of farmers and poor beneficiaries under the public distribution system. The Food and Consumer Affairs Minister also asked FCI and its employees not to tolerate corruption in its operations. He was speaking at the 60th Foundation Day of the Food Corporation of India (FCI), the government's nodal agency for procurement and distribution of food grains. The FCI was established on January 14, 1965. Addressing the event, Goyal complemented the FCI for ensuring that farmers get reasonable prices for their produce and providing food grains to 81 crore people. He asked the FCI and its employees to focus on three priorities. First, he said, "We should win the trust of our farmers as well as our beneficiaries, which are poor and lower-middle-income people. This should be our first priority to

West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose has asked senior state government officers including Chief Secretary BP Gopalika to brief him about the ration scam, an official said on Wednesday. Besides, Gopalika, Home Secretary Nandini Chakraborty and DGP Rajiv Kumar have been called by the Governor for the meeting. "The governor has asked the chief secretary, home secretary and DGP to brief him about the proceedings on the ration scam. He will also ask them to give them details about the development in arresting the accused TMC leader Shahjahan Sheikh," he told PTI. The ED director on Tuesday met the governor. "The meeting lasted for nearly 40 minutes and the ED chief briefed the governor," he said. An ED team was attacked on Friday when they went to TMC leader Shahjahan Sheikh's house in Sandeshkhali to conduct a raid in connection with alleged irregularities in the ration scam. The ED has already lodged a complaint at the Nazat police station in connection with the assault. The family

The Civil supplies have also seized 146 litres of kerosene and 43 gas cylinders that were to be supplied to PDS ration shops in the state

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The model bylaws will enable PACS to offer economic activities other than credit which includes developing cold-storage facilities in villages, running PDS shops and locker facilities for depositors

The government has received 611 complaints till June this year regarding irregularities in the functioning of the public distribution system, Parliament was informed on Tuesday

Cabinet approves extra spending of Rs 67,266.44 crore for five months; earlier extra amount of Rs 26,602 crore was estimated for May and June, 2021

Says at present only 57% population is covered under PDS, while 67% has legal entitlement to subsidised grains under NFSA

Currently, the scheme isn't all-embracing as it is based on 2011 census data, and leaves out 100 million people without ration cards

The issue assumes importance after the starvation death of a girl in UP and information given to Parliamentary standing committee on labour that migrant workers without ration cards didn't get food

Paswan welcomed the decision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the extension of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana (PMGKAY) for five more months

According to Varma, former chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India Nandan Nilekani had "explicitly recommended" PDS portability riding on Aadhaar

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Critics said the measure was unlikely to have any impact on migrant workers as most don't have their ration cards with them.

The direct spending by the centre, on Thursday's announcements will include Rs 3,500 crore that the centre will spend on providing free foodgrains to 80 million migrants

Andhra, Bihar, Kerala, UP distribute more than 90% of the month's allocation to the poor

Abhijit Banerjee pointed out several measures, including giving temporary ration cards, a bigger stimulus package and providing cash to India's poorest 60% to revive the Covid-19-hit economy

She says India needs to avoid another nationwide lockdown

Move will lead to use of part of a stockpile of 30.57 million tonnes, which is almost 126% more than the buffer stock and strategic requirement norms