CELIA ORBOC, a cake-seller in the Philippines, spent her little stipend on a wooden shack, giving her five children a roof over their heads for the first time. In Kyrgyzstan Sharmant Oktomanova spent hers buying flour to feed six children. In Haiti President René Préval praises a dairy co-operative that gives mothers milk and yogurt when their children go to school. These are examples of the world’s favourite new anti-poverty device,...

HCL Infosystems' led consortium with Accor Services and Virgo Softech has bagged a contract from Madhya Pradesh government for implementing food coupon-based targeted public Distribution systems (PDS) in the state. According to a company release, the project would involve setting up a model of food and civil supplies Distribution in the state based on the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) guidelines. The order is for over 10 million expected...

The NAC's recommendations on food security measures take heed of the fact that PDS reform is dependent on the availability of enough foodgrains. Three major elements of the United Progressive Alliance government's commitment to provide food security to the people are reforming the public Distribution system (PDS), raising foodgrain productivity and production, and creating a decentralised, modern warehousing system. Ideally, the reforms in the PDS should have come first for the availability...

Systemic Failure * Despite record procurement, poor storage has led to a criminal waste of grain * 61,000 tonnes of grain rotted as it was left in the open during the monsoon * The FCI had shut down storage facilities after low procurement in 2006-07 * The plan for decentralised storage facilities is 40 years old. It’s still hanging fire. * EGoM did not clear the surplus grains for the PDS since it would have...

AGRICULTURE minister Sharad Pawar has launched smart cards in Haryana and Chandigarh as a pilot project aimed at streamlining the public Distribution system (PDS). Smart cards will replace paper cards and the subsidised ration bought at fair price shops (FPS) will be recorded online. The smart card will have biometric identification details of the beneficiary like fingerprints and iris scans. A smart card will also record the amount of stock a...