Public Distribution System In India Research Articles

A Systematic Literature Review of the Public Distribution System in India

A Systematic Literature Review of the Public Distribution System in India

Implementation of Technological Upgradation in Public Distribution System in India for Ensuring Availability, Accessibility and Affordability

The largest initiative to reduce poverty in India is the public distribution system (PDS), which uses a network of fair-pricing shops to supply highly subsidised food grains in order to fulfil necessities of households living below poverty line. PDS's primary objective is to buy food grains from farmers. This is to ensure that grain is distributed, stored, and transported so that people in need have access to food. The Indian government has thus upgraded the PDS's technology in an attempt to increase its transparency. To close this gap between technology and citizen benefits, e-government makes use of technical intermediaries like ration Integrated Weight Management System (IWMS), Management Information System (MIS), Inventory management system, etc. The focus of the government is to enact a number of administrative and technological changes under the centralised online real-time electronic public distribution system in order to empower end users of the PDS supply. In this context this paper deals with the number of difficulties when distribution system switches from manual to automated transactions, dealer of fair price shop, who employs the technologies. Based on secondary literature, the objective of this paper is to understand the challenges associated with implementing technology at the point of sale during distribution, as well as study the status of the implementation technological based distribution system. Int. J. Soc. Sc. Manage. Vol. 11, Issue-(1-2): 1-6.

Characterizing the critical success factors influencing blockchain technology adoption in Indian public distribution system: an exploratory approach

PurposeThe public distribution system (PDS) is an Indian food security system established to manage the distribution of food grains at affordable prices. As a result of the population explosion, the long-established PDS system finds it challenging to maintain operational efficiency, quality, trust and transparency. This paper explores the possibility of leveraging blockchain technology to overcome these operational hurdles.Design/methodology/approachThrough a literature review and expert interactions, the present research identifies critical success factors in terms of enablers and barriers that influence the adoption of blockchain technology in PDS. Furthermore, we propose two independent interpretive structural models (ISM) and MICMAC to characterize these attributes.FindingsThe research identifies 15 distinct enablers and ten barriers that influence the diffusion of the latest technology in the sector at focus. The analyses disclose the interrelationships/dependencies among these enablers and between barriers, along with their individual driving power and dependence power.Practical implicationsThe research showcases the importance of automating the system and illustrates how the features of blockchain technology can assist in augmenting stakeholder satisfaction levels. However, poor or nonexistent government regulations and patronage are found to be the major impediments to adoption. The research also delineates the cost implications of this barrier through its interrelationships with other barriers.Originality/valueInteresting inferences are drawn from the models that offer actionable insights for the industry, government and technologists for improving PDS performance. Such interventions will ensure national food security through enhanced trust and transparency, which can further improve efficiency and effectiveness.

Mandatory fortification of rice in the public distribution system in India: An ethics perspective.

In response to the continuing high prevalence of anaemia recorded in the National Family Health Survey-5, the Indian government launched a policy for mandatory iron fortification of the rice provided through public nutrition programmes in India. This was done even though a rigorous evidence analysis had already concluded that rice fortification was not effective in preventing anaemia or iron deficiency at the population level. Fortification also poses a potential risk of iron toxicity over time, but there is no stated time period for the policy's implementation. The risk is particularly high in segments of the population who already have a high habitual iron intake, and who could be exposed to simultaneous fortification in different staples and food commodities along with the ongoing weekly Iron and Folic Acid tablets supplementation programme. Finally, this fortification policy also requires significant additional funding and resources to implement. It is crucial to examine such mandatory health actions, and to weigh the benefits and risks of harm, using the principles of public health ethics.

Analyzing barriers of integrated RFID-blockchain adoption in the Indian public distribution systems

PurposeAs an emerging technology, Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) and blockchain have the potential to disrupt many areas of business and social structure. However, it is loaded with significant technical, social, legal, financial and ethical complications that bring difficulty in its widespread use within the public distribution system (PDS). This research aims to analyze the barriers to integrated RFID and blockchain adoption in developing countries' PDS. Furthermore, this study also aims to validate the proposed framework against the Indian PDS.Design/methodology/approachThe proposed framework consists of 10 potential barriers to integrated RFID and blockchain adoption. To identify the barriers, this study referred to the extant literature followed by consultations with domain experts. This study prepared the DEMATEL-based questionnaires, collected the data from four domain experts and analyzed them using an integrated Grey-DEMATEL approach.FindingsThe obtained results provide a precise list of barriers and the correlations among them. From the results, it is concluded that the unavailability of a skilled workforce at affordable cost, lack of knowledge about privacy level and unclear return on investment and benefits are the most critical blockchain adoption barriers in the context of Indian PDS.Originality/valueThis research proposes a framework consisting of 10 integrated RFID and blockchain adoption barriers in relation to Indian PDS. It also proposes a method for analyzing causal interrelationships between the barriers while allowing for data input from domain experts. Consequently, the framework is capable of coping with experts' biases and data scarcity.

Digitization a Panacea for Public Distribution System: A Review

After independence, the Government of India has made many efforts to grab the problem of hunger and malnutrition. The public Distribution System (PDS) plays a critical role in reducing hunger by providing food security at affordable prices to the vulnerable section of society. However, the inefficiencies and corruption make the system less trustworthy. The scheme end-to-end computerization was implemented by the government as a part of measures to bring more efficiency and curb malpractices in the Public distribution system. The article reviews whether digitization was a panacea for PDS in India. A systematic review of 25 articles was conducted using the databases: Jstor, Scopus, Web of Science, peer-reviewed journals, etc. The study highlighted various benefits along with the challenges of digitization in the public distribution system in India. It was concluded that the central and state government should critically evaluate the prerequisite of digitization and should deploy digitization as an alternative policy to other structural and policy reforms.

A predictive model for Cash or In-kind transfer in welfare scheme: Implications for Indian Public Distribution System

A predictive model for Cash or In-kind transfer in welfare scheme: Implications for Indian Public Distribution System

Attended home delivery under uncertain travel and response time: a case of Indian public distribution system

PurposeBeing the final end of the logistic distribution, attended home delivery (AHD) plays an important role in the distribution network. AHD typically refers to the service provided by the distribution service provider to the recipient's doorstep. Researchers have always identified AHD as a bottleneck for last-mile delivery. This paper addresses a real-life stochastic multi-objective AHD problem in the context of the Indian public distribution system (PDS).Design/methodology/approachTwo multi-objective models are proposed. Initially, the problem is formulated in a deterministic environment, and later on, it is extended to a multi-objective AHD model with stochastic travel and response time. This stochastic AHD model is used to extensively analyze the impact of stochastic travel time and customer response time on the total expected cost and time-window violation. Due to the NP-hard nature of the problem, an ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm, tuned via response surface methodology (RSM), is proposed to solve the problem.FindingsExperimental results show that a change in travel time and response time does not significantly alter the service level of an AHD problem. However, it is strongly correlated with the planning horizon and an increase in the planning horizon reduces the time-window violation drastically. It is also observed that a relatively longer planning horizon has a lower expected cost per delivery associated.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper does not consider the uncertainty of supply from the warehouse. Also, stochastic delivery failure probabilities and randomness in customer behavior have not been taken into consideration in this study.Practical implicationsIn this paper, the role of uncertainty in an AHD problem is extensively studied through a case of the Indian PDS. The paper analyzes the role of uncertain travel time and response time over different planning horizons in an AHD system. Further, the impact of the delivery planning horizon, travel time and response time on the overall cost and service level of an AHD system is also investigated.Social implicationsThis paper investigates a unique and practical AHD problem in the context of Indian PDS. In the present context of AHD, this study is highly relevant for real-world applications and can help build a more efficient delivery system. The findings of this study will be of particular interest to the policy-makers to build a more robust PDS in India.Originality/valueThe most challenging part of an AHD problem is the requirement of the presence of customers during the time of delivery, due to which the probability of failed delivery drastically increases if the delivery deviates from the customer's preferred time slot. The paper modelled an AHD system to incorporate uncertainties to attain higher overall performance and explore the role of uncertainty in travel and response time with respect to the planning horizon in an AHD, which has not been considered by any other literature.

Wheat Procurement Forecasting for Indian PDS Using Regression Model

In this paper the regression model is developed to forecast the wheat procurement for PDS in India. The FCI(Food Corporation of India) procure various food grain to ensure food security to all Indians. Indian PDS(Public Distribution System) is one of the largest supply chain which covers more than 800 million beneficiaries and have FPS(Fair price Shops) across the country. In this paper we computed the errors and Theil’s U coefficient for the proposed method to show its efficacy and the results turned out to be acceptable.

PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM IN INDIA FROM A WAR-TIME RATIONING MEASURE TO LEGAL ENTITLEMENT

Public Distribution System (PDS) is an Indian food security system established under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution. PDS developed as a strategy of managing shortages through the inexpensive distribution of foodgrains at reliable rates. PDS has been in use in India for more than eighty years. Present paper is an attempt to trace the development of Indian public distribution system, a mechanism for ensuring food security in India. The changing functions of the public distribution system over a long span of time since its inception is discussed in present paper. This paper is descriptive and exploratory in nature and is based on secondary data collected from the various authentic sources like research paper, government websites, newspapers and other important sources. KEY WORDS: PDS; National Food Security Act 2013; COVID-19; 2nd World War

Programmed welfare: An ethnographic account of algorithmic practices in the public distribution system in India

Although considered to be fixed sequence of computational procedures, the actual nature of algorithms emerges only in practice through its performative agency enacted within a network of human and non-human actors. In this article, I trace this agency in the everyday practices of the algorithmic system of welfare distribution, namely, the Aadhaar-enabled Public Distribution System (AePDS), through ethnographic fieldwork across three states in India. Conceptualising the AePDS as a programmed welfare system, I unpack its underlying assemblages to show that far from being objective technologies of governance, algorithmic sorting for targeted welfare is enacted in relation to a multitude of human actors, databases, machines, documents and shifting institutional contexts, in ways that are markedly different from its fixed computation properties. This mode of enquiry, I argue, makes the process of algorithmic enactment more transparent and comprehensible, which in turn will aid in better design and governance of such systems.

Counterintuitive behaviour: evidence from Indian public distribution system

Counterintuitive behaviour: evidence from Indian public distribution system

Counterintuitive behaviour: evidence from Indian public distribution system

Counterintuitive behaviour: evidence from Indian public distribution system

Uptake of Encapsulated Ferrous Fumarate Double Fortified Salt in the Public Distribution System in India: A Value Chain Analysis.

Food fortification is a powerful strategy to reach large populations with multiple micronutrients added to a single food vehicle. The impact depends on the sustained provision and utilization of adequately fortified food by a large population (mainly in low-income and food-insecure settings). We apply a value chain (VC) analysis framework to diagnose and address the barriers to the uptake of encapsulated ferrous fumarate double fortified salt (DFS) distributed through public-sector-led DFS interventions in India.We adapt the VC requirements framework proposed by Henson and Humphrey to identify and categorize barriers along the DFS VC as technological, market-related, and policy-related. We conducted a desk review of published and unpublished literature on DFS and information available in the public domain, semi-structured interviews with VC stakeholders from the private sector, program data from implementing organizations, and participation in multistakeholder consultations on DFS.Major supply-side barriers were under-developed private markets, inconsistent demand from public markets, unpredictable returns-on-investments, and inadequate business incentives to invest in DFS. The product's weak consumer orientation, uncreated consumer demand, low awareness of fortified foods, inadequate nutrition signaling were significant demand-side barriers. Technological barriers related to the requirement of high-grade salt for DFS production and residual organoleptic property of mild discoloration of food. Policy barriers related to inadequate and irregular financing for distributing subsidized DFS through the public distribution system; insufficient policy support for risk-sharing and managing costs associated with fortification; and a weak institutional environment for sustaining DFS interventions.Building an enabling institutional environment, demand creation through consumer awareness, strengthening institutional markets through public financing, managing cost and risks through public-private partnerships, and assuring quality during commercial scale-up are critical interventions necessary to ensure impact at scale.

Rethinking the Formation of Public Distribution System: A Class-Focused Approach

Using the methodology of overdetermination, class process of surplus labor as the entry point and socially determined need of food security, we deliver an alternative class-focused rendition of the public distribution system (PDS) in India. We first surmise our theoretical framework to infer that the overdetermined and contradictory relation of class and social needs matter for PDS. Beyond the reasoning of being pro-poor, fair, or wasteful, we deploy this framework to reinterpret the formation of Indian PDS in the 1960s. Its demonstration requires revisiting the historical condition that shaped capital’s passive revolution through the post-independence Indian state and its subsequent crisis arising out of the contradictions and conflicts in the class-need space. We argue that PDS signals a case of success and not failure of capitalism. JEL Classification: B41, B51, N45

Multi-echelon agri-food supply chain network design integrating operational and strategic objectives: a case of public distribution system in India.

The global concern to ensure the availability of food for the growing world’s population draws urgent attention towards the inefficiencies in agri-food supply chains. Agri-food supply chains are inherently complex to manage than other supply chains mainly because of their multi-echelon structure, deteriorating product quality with time and changes in storage conditions which leads to significant amount of food loss and wastage. Additionally, any natural or man-made disaster further disrupts the chain and leads to high food loss, high supply chain costs, reduced food availability and poor food quality. Hence, there is a need to design resilient and efficient agri-food supply chain network for optimal multi-echelon storage and distribution to reduce food loss and quality degradation. For this purpose, a Fuzzy Multi Objective Linear Program (FMOLP) is proposed in this paper for integrated food procurement, storage and distribution under cost, resilience and quality considerations. The proposed model integrates the short-term operational objective of cost optimization with the long-term sustainable objectives of food loss minimization and resilience maximization. The proposed FMOLP is illustrated using a realistic case of Public Distribution System using the data benchmarked with the numbers reported by the Food corporation of India. The detailed computational analysis carried out in the paper in investigates three categories of problem sizes to compare and contrast the decisions using different strategies and to provide organizational, operational and policy insights on the trade-off between cost, food loss and resilience.

Product subsidy and expected consumption with inventory inaccuracy: Implications of RFID adoption in Indian public distribution system

In countries that fight malnutrition and hunger, governments and international agencies sponsor subsidy programmes to improve consumption of staple food among the poor. Although the donors in such programmes provide product subsidy to make it affordable and accessible, the supply chain used to deliver these products to the end beneficiary is prone to losses and diversion. Intervention of advanced technologies like RFID, GPS, and GIS are likely to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of such systems. However, considering budget limitation, a key concern for the donors is to investigate how diversion of fund in favour of technology would impact the product subsidy and expected consumption. We model the situation as a price-taking and price-setting newsvendor who implements the subsidy programme, and a donor who provides funding, to investigate the issue. We perform numerical analysis using actual data concerning to the food security system of India and our results show that, for both the price-taking and price-setting situation, the system with RFID generates more consumption as compared to that of the non-RFID situation at same donor budget. We also find that, fixing the price at suitable level the donors could control the profit of the implementing firm, and could generate more consumption as compared to that of the price decontrol situation.

Blockchain in Indian Public Distribution System: a conceptual framework to prevent leakage of the supplies and its enablers and disablers

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual framework for the application of blockchain in the Public Distribution System (PDS) in India to manage the supply of food grains to the targeted beneficiaries. The framework will help prevent diversions and leakages of grains at the warehouse and Fair Price Shop (FPS) level. The paper also identifies the enablers and disablers in the context of the framework. Design/methodology/approach This paper will firstly review the previous literature in PDS and blockchain-enabled agricultural and food supply chains. The study then proposes a framework that could be implemented in the PDS in India using blockchain technology. Findings The proposed framework provides an effective way to combat corruption, exclusion errors of targeted beneficiaries, leakage of PDS food grains and is cost-effective. The identified enablers and disablers give an insight into the application of blockchain in PDS in India. Research limitations/implications The research work may have implications for the Ministry of Food and PDS (Central Government), Food Corporation of India and State Governments to manage the supply of the grains more efficiently and effectively. Originality/value The current study caters to the implementation of blockchain technology starting from the warehouse level to the FPSs and consumers and simultaneously connecting them to concerned authorities to ensure transparency and accountability.

Attended home delivery in Indian public distribution system: an iterated local search approach

PurposeIn the modern era of e-grocery, attended home delivery (AHD) has been identified as a crucial part of the last-mile delivery problem. This paper aims to deal with a real-life last-mile-delivery problem in the context of the Indian public distribution system (PDS). The authors identified two different environments for the said AHD problem and proposed two different approaches to address the issue under these problem settings.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, the authors first consider the problem in a static environment and propose an iterated local search (ILS) integrated with an adaptive large neighborhood search (ALNS) meta-heuristic algorithm to obtain a routing solution. Thereafter, they extend the study in a dynamic environment where new delivery requests occur dynamically and propose a heuristic algorithm to solve the problem. For the dynamic case, multiple scenarios for the occurrence of delivery requests are considered to determine decisions regarding the opportunity to include a new request into the current solution.FindingsBy computational experiments, the authors show that the proposed approach performs significantly well for large size problem instances. They demonstrate the differences and advantages of the dynamic problem setting through a set of different scenarios. Also, they present a comparative analysis to show the benefits of adopting the algorithm in dynamic routing scenarios.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research may extend the scope of this study by incorporating stochastic delivery failure probabilities and customer behavior affecting the delivery response. Also, the present study does not take inventory policies at the depot into consideration. It will be of interest to see how the system performs under the uncertainty of supply from the depot. Despite the limitations, the authors believe that this study provides food for thought and encouragements for practitioners.Practical implicationsThis study shows the benefits of adopting an AHD problem in a dynamic setting in terms of customer service as compared to a traditional static environment. The authors clearly demonstrate the differences and advantages of the dynamic problem setting through a set of different scenario analysis.Social implicationsThis paper investigates a real-life AHD problem faced by the Department of Food, Supply and Consumer Affairs, India. The findings of this study will be of particular interest to the policy-makers to build a more robust PDS in India.Originality/valueThe study is unique and highly relevant for real-world applications and can help build a more robust AHD system. Also, the proposed solution approaches to aid the problem in both static and dynamic routing scenarios will be of particular interest to practitioners.

An IoT-based tracking application to monitor goods carrying vehicle for public distribution system in India

An IoT-based tracking application to monitor goods carrying vehicle for public distribution system in India