Managing welfare driven supply chains: insights from the Indian PDS

Abstract

The objectives of this paper are to understand the design, implementation and monitoring of welfare driven food supply chains. As a case in point the Indian public distribution system (PDS) has been investigated. In India a targeted public distribution system (TPDS) was carved out as a novel system of safety net operations for the distribution of scheduled commodities to the targeted citizens. The distribution of commodities is through a network of institutions comprising Food Corporation of India (FCI) warehouses and fair price shops (FPS). The methodology adopted is a mix of literature review, document analysis, interview with policy makers, officials responsible for distribution of food grains, fair price shop owners and survey of end users. It is inferred that this system is fraught with inefficiency at all stages of the supply chain and service delivery is poor. A hybrid approach is proposed to retain the current PDS supply chain while making suitable process redesigns, introducing ICT-based interventions and involvement of private actors in the service delivery.