The parliamentary panel asks the Center to speed up the digital review of the public distribution system

New Delhi: Parliamentary Standing Committee on Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution has asked the Center to speed up the rollout ₹Program for modernization and reforms through technology in the public distribution system (SMART-PDS) for 349.9 million crowns. It said the next phase of reforms should focus on building a single, real-time digital platform capable of improving beneficiary targeting, strengthening supply chain monitoring and reducing leakages in India’s food subsidy program, which has nearly 800 million beneficiaries.

The recommendations come after the Center completed the first phase of digitization of the Public Distribution System (PDS). Around 205 million ration cards for nearly 800 million beneficiaries have been digitized under this initiative.

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The report says these reforms also led to the elimination of 67.7 million duplicate or ineligible ration cards between 2013 and December 2025, improving the targeting of food subsidies.

Chaired by DMK MP Kanimozhi Karunanidhi, the panel said the Ministry of Food and Public Distribution should ensure time-bound implementation of SMART-PDS in all states and Union Territories, full integration with agencies such as the Food Corporation of India (FCI), Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) and other ministries and establish national dashboards, command and control centers, cloud infrastructure and technical assistance services as core components of the new system.

However, the committee said these gains need to be consolidated by closing supply chain computerization gaps, completing the pending SMART-PDS modules and continuing to clean the database to ensure that food subsidy benefits are channeled to genuine beneficiaries.

The report also said the department identified 29.1 million suspicious beneficiaries through data analysis, including 22 million “silent” ration cards, more than 3.4 million deceased beneficiaries, about 3 million duplicate beneficiaries, 560,000 beneficiaries over 100 years of age and more than 210,000 beneficiaries who are the only beneficiary under 100 years of age. age.

He recommended that on-the-spot verification of these cases be completed on a mission mode while ensuring that eligible beneficiaries are not wrongfully excluded through robust grievance redressal mechanisms.

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A single digital platform

Key recommendations of the panel include creating a single national digital platform integrating procurement, allocation, storage, transportation, ration card management, biometric authentication, grievance redressal and payments to enable real-time monitoring and data-driven policy making. He also stated that interoperability, cyber security, cloud infrastructure and technical support should be considered non-negotiable pillars of SMART-PDS implementation.

Despite considerable digitization, the commission kept a close watch differences between states. While Bihar has achieved full digitization with over 98% Aadhaar seeding, Meghalaya has only 73% Aadhaar seeding. Telangana still has 80 fair price shops operating offline, Tamil Nadu has 403 fair price shops in off-grid areas and Kerala was looking for an integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP)-based PDS platform.

To address these gaps, the committee recommended creating a structured cross-learning framework within the SMART-PDS so that top-performing states can help laggards replicate successful practices through technical support, training and standard operating procedures.

The panel also highlighted recurring operational issues such as biometric authentication failures for senior beneficiaries and manual workers, poor internet connectivity, incomplete module customization, pending grievance redressal and uneven adoption of the Anna Chakra route optimization platform. While Bihar accepted almost all the optimized shipping routes, the acceptance rate was 20% in Tamil Nadu and nil in Kerala, despite the projected logistical savings.

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Technical initiatives

The panel also encouraged wider deployment of technology initiatives such as Mera Ration, Anna Mitra and Anna Chakra. According to a report, Mera Ration 2.0 has crossed 10 million downloads while Anna Mitra has been launched in four states. Developed with support from IIT Delhi and the World Food Program (WFP), Anna Chakra demonstrated potential annual transport savings of approx ₹250 million, 15-50% reduction in transport distance and almost 30% lower carbon emissions in 30 states. The committee recommended a time-bound nationwide adoption of these initiatives.

The report also supported the ministry’s proposal to pilot central bank digital currency (CBDC)-based food subsidy delivery, saying programmable digital tokens could improve transparency, reduce leakages and enable real-time tracking of subsidy transfers. It recommends expanding the pilot project in phases after the initial rollout.

According to experts, the modernization of the PDS should not be seen only as a technological upgrade, but as a reform to strengthen India’s food security architecture. “A unified SMART-PDS platform can improve targeting, reduce leakages and make subsidy delivery more transparent. However, the technology must complement robust field verification and regular updating of beneficiary databases so that genuine households are not excluded from the safety net,” said Binod Anand, a farming expert and member of the government’s SME committee.