Reimagining of public distribution system (PDS) by identifying potential improvement areas in the current system and providing implementable policy suggestions from management perspective

Abstract

Food insecurity is a scale that traverses from household-level uncertainty and concern about availability to plentiful and nutritious food to the extreme circumstance of children going to bed on an empty stomach because of a lack of food. (Kendall et al, 1995) Food security programs initiated by governments across the globe are deemed to be a way to tackle this problem by means of subsidised food to the marginal income groups in order to ensure food to all. These programs are designed as a way of social welfare so that basic necessities are delivered to the population at a cost-effective rate. The government bodies decide the minimum rate of sustenance for a person in a particular geography based on different methods. Various economies run different programs to ensure food security to every individual irrespective of their income levels. One of the key programs ran by government of India is the Indian Public Distribution System (PDS). A large amount of budget is dedicated by the central government to ensure food safety. But time and again, the PDS has come under scrutiny from media and consumers where they have raised serious questions on the functioning of these programs. There are claims of corruption, bad food quality, wastage, etc. which have come into light from the days the program has started. Through this project, we are keen to understand the problems in Indian Public distribution system (PDS) and find innovative ways to tackle them from a management perspective.