Questions/Answers

NFSA is an important policy aimed at reducing poverty through the mechanism of delivering minimum requirements of food grains at highly subsidised prices to population below poverty line. This can be accomplished only when real beneficiaries are identified and mechanisms are adopted to see that food grains really reach them. The challenges were : 1. No track on whether real / genuine beneficiaries are availing the ration 2. Huge number of bogus beneficiaries 3. Deliberate under-weighment of the commodities by sales person. 4. Leakages in transit 5. Lack of billing 6. Diversion of commodities before reaching the shop 7. No transparency to the government 8. manipulated stock registers. 9. Improper storages. 10. Delayed movement of stock. 11. mismatch of procurement-offtake and disbursement of stock. 12. FPS dealer denying availability of stock. 13. Allocation based on 2/3 months back data of projected CBs 14. Entire stock movement and distribution process not completing on time within the month. To overcome these difficulties it is imperative to computerise the project, make end to end PDS transparent, trackable in real time. AePDS is a unique attempt of improving quality of services under PDS, leveraging Aadhaar platform in delivering food commodities to eligible beneficiaries. 1. Bogus cards removed based on Aadhar seeding 2. Beneficiaries are identified on bio metric Aadhar authentication. 3. Aged or sick Beneficiaries unable to authenticate are mapped to VRO, who authenticates, draws and delivers to the beneficiary. 4. Beneficiary is empowered to know stock availability details through sms, portal, mobile app, help desk etc. 5. Portability feature enables the beneficiary to take ration from any FPS. 6. Change in behavior pattern of FPS dealers. 7. Accurate weighment 8. Stock movement and distribution of ration on time. 9. All vehicles fitted with GPS equipment for Vehicle tracking. No diversion or pilferages of stock 10. Transperency portal / mobile Apps available to the Department for effective management

Main objectives of AePDS under NFSA : To protect low income groups by guaranteeing supply of certain minimum quantities of food grains at affordable price. To ensure that every beneficiary gets food grains on time at the prescribed rate. AePDS is committed to revoke any kind of food hoardings and over-pricing of food grains with cashless payment system integrated. To improve existing PDS into an “End to End PDS”, by computerizing with following components : 1. Ration Card Management System : To eliminate Bogus (ration cards belonging to fictitious families) and Shadow (genuine ration cards used by someone else) ration cards in the system by identifying real beneficiary through eKYC facility of Aadhaar and six step validation. 2. Supply Chain Management : Online work flow for every stage of stock movement, RO generation, dispatches with Vehicle Tracking through GPS enabled vehicles to eliminate leakages, pilferages and diversions. 3. Fair Price Shop Automation : ePOS enables unique biometric Aadhaar authentication of beneficiaries, makes it transparent and accountable, tracks individual beneficiary monthly off take, ensures correct weighment, empowers beneficiary to know entitlements, stock details through SMSs, online portal and mobile Apps. 4. Grievance redressal System: available in portal and through help desk

The flagship programme of National Food Security Act (NFSA) is targeted to provide easy and affordable food to low income groups of rural and urban population at subsidized rate, healthy and nutritious food to the poorest and most vulnerable through inclusive services. AePDS has addressed and achieved the following objectives of NFSA 1. Facilitating dignified life: The World Bank report mentions that 23.6% of Indian population living on less than $1.25 per day. This section often struggles to fill their stomach. Subsidised affordable food grains would solve this problem to certain extent. Empowers the beneficiary to know his/her entitlement, commodity prices, stock position and availing ration with accurate weighment at any FPS across the state through portability. AePDS facilitates Cashless transactions as a convenient method of transacting, for most beneficiaries utilizing the Jandhan Accounts where pensions are being credited to their accounts, without having to draw money from account and spend for ration. 2. Right to Food: AePDS facilitates distribution of food grains for all the existing programmes, namely Mid-day Meal (MDM), Public Distribution System (PDS) and Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) to fulfill nutritional needs of pregnant and lactating women and children are addressed.

2030 Agenda is a plan of action for eradicating poverty and hunger. AePDS is a step in this direction in a massive scale to end hunger. AePDS is end to end computerization of PDS ensuring efficiency, timeliness, transperency and effectiveness, eliminating pilferages and diversions. Beneficiaries are empowered to know their entitlement and stock available at FPS and avail ration from any shop across the state under portability and are ensured that their ration can be availed by themselves only through Aadhar authentication. It ensures dignity to the poor in the PDS. Real beneficiaries are identified with adhaar seeding and eKYC verification, 6 step validations removing bogus ration cards. Project links to eGovernance systems in real time like RTA for vehicle registration, Land records, pensions, scholarships, labour schemes etc. AePDS is one of its kind reaching poorest of the poor. Stock movement from Govt. Of india allotment till it reaches benefeciaries can be tracked. The system is linked with Govt of india Annavitaran portal to monitor the status of the project. Links to automated SCM by facilitating dealer to receive stock with aadhaar authentication. Deliverables of Govt of India scheme can be measured at every stage online making the project successful.

Aim of TPDS project under NFSA is to eliminate hunger and poverty by providing food to needy at subsidised rate. Every month around 13 millions of beneficiaries directly avail ration through the PDS scheme. Distribution of food grains to Anganwadi Centres through ePOS at FPS benefits pregnant women, lactating mothers and children and Government Schools for Mid Day Meal scheme , and hostels addressing school going children nutritional needs. This aim is achieved by Identifying real, poor and needy beneficiaries requiring food subsidy by Aaadhar seeding, Deduplication, 6 step validation Ensure stock movement to Fair price shops in time and in correct weighment through automated SCM. Stock Movement can be traced through online portal and vehicle tracking system Stock availability at godowns and FPS tracked through online portal, and mobile app by officials and beneficiaries at any point to maintain transparency. Every beneficiary receives entitlement through aadhaar authentication ensuring the benefits reach targeted people. Inclusion of beneficiaries whose Aadhar authentication fails due to old age, bedridden or diseased or worn out fingers is done through mapping such cards to VRO who will draw on Adhaar authentication and deliver. End to end computerization makes beneficiaries participate in claiming their right.

AePDS successfully empowers the beneficiary to claim benefits. Aadhaar ensures that nobody other than the authorized person can claim the benefits. It has been observed that within three days of every month the disbursement of 50% of ration takes place. Transparency across the system ensures monitoring of the scheme at each step. Beneficiary has the facility avail ration from FPS of choice. This in turn introduces competition among the FPS for a larger share of beneficiaries, leading to improved service delivery, in terms of quality and quantity of the commodities and behavior of FPS sales person with beneficiaries. AePDS has reduced waiting time for beneficiary. Portability offered in AePDS creates fear of losing customers which brings a drastic change in behavior of FPS personnel while dealing with the beneficiary. Reduced number of trips of beneficiaries due to timely stock movement. In AePDS, a beneficiary is able to get all the commodities at one time. Even when one commodity is not available in an FPS the beneficiary can take the same from nearby FPS. AePDS made the government scheme a success, empowering benefeciaries unlike previous system where they were requesting to get the benefit, now they are claiming their benefit.

End-to-end computerization of Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS): For achieving end-to-end Computerization of Targeted PDS, 4 key areas were identified 1) Creation & Management of digitized Beneficiary Database 2) Aadhaar seeding and eKYC verification of the beneficiaries 3) 6 step validation under NFSA to eliminate bogus cards 4) Supply Chain Management of TPDS commodities from Food Corporation of India till Fair Price Shops 5) E-weighment at godowns to ensure correct weighment during dispatch of stock 6) Voice-over for each step of transaction at FPS in local language through ePOS 7) Vehicle tracking system to avoid diversion of stock 8) Aadhaar authenticated receipt of stock to maintain accountability 9) SMS message at each step to the concerned stakeholders 10) Sale of TPDS commodities at Fair Price Shops including identification and authentication of beneficiaries and recording of transactions through e-POS (electronic Point of Sale) 11) Food Grains distribution under ICDS and MDM schemes 12) Portability empowering the beneficiary to draw ration in any FPS across the state. 13) Transparency and Grievance Redressal Mechanism 14) Stock verification and inspecton module 15) Mobile app to monitor stock position 16) Inclusion mechanism through VRO for door delivery of ration to sick old and bed ridden benefeciaries

The innovation is one of its kind in the entire country where all innovations were designed and developed with field experience and requirement. The end to end computerisation with complete cycle makes the initiative reach the real beneficiary. Portability in availing ration is a gamechanger resulting in behavioral changes in dealers. Biometric authentication through finger, fusion finger and iris resulted in better success rate. The success of the scheme is not on the paper but can be visualised with online transparency portal and the targeted groups satisfaction. More than 20 Lakh transactions take place on peak days during the first week of the month. The system is being adopted by other states across the country. AePDS upgraded to JanDhanPDS by integration of Jan Dhan Accounts of beneficiaries with the dealer account for seamless transfer of money using onus or off-us transactions. This is the only of its kind in entire country to implement JAM technology in PDS where TPDS schemes are implemented by Aadhar authentication with biometric and iris authentication. It is a complete work automation system having dashboards catering to the varying information needs of various stakeholders involved in PDS operations.

It’s an online application developed and maintained by National informatics centre. The complete application is developed in open source platform, JAVA open source technology with PostgreSQL as DB. The application works on electronic Point Of Sale (ePOS) handheld device connected to server with 2G/ 3G sim card to capture aadhaar enabled bio authentication to deliver ration to the beneficiary. Weighing machine is connected to the ePOS device through Bluetooth. The one time cost incurred on the devices and weighing machines have already come in the form of returns through huge savings which is around 3crs per month. SMS services are implemented using NIC SMS gateway. Application is security audited and Aadhaar User Agency and Aadhaar Service Agency are as per UIDAI Auth 2.0 guidelines and data travels in secured and encrypted format.

Yes

After the success of the project, the food and consumer affairs division Delhi decided to roll out the same model in other states. The project is successfully rolled out in the states of Haryana, Sikkim, Punjab, Delhi, Tripura, Kerala and Maharashtra and other states are in Pipeline. The project is rolled out in other states with minimum customisation and shortest possible time due to generic nature of its development. For each state local language voice-over facility is provided in the ePOS devices and the transparency portals have state local language version. There are visits from other countries like tanzania to study the system. There are enquiries from other countries like Libya to help implement a similar system in their country.

Any eGovernance initiative which satisfies the beneficiaries but doesn’t involve other stake- holders generally does not succeed but this initiative involves and benefits all stake-holders. The initiative is developed in open source technology and developed and maintained by National Informatics centre hence saving software and development costs. The project is continuously using new technology to enhance and improve the outcome. During development and enhancement of the software all stakeholders are involved to make it user friendly, hence sustainability is increased. Benefits for ration card holders : i) Ease in identity verification with Aadhaar biometric authentication. ii) Expanded coverage: Ease in identity verification allows poor residents who have so far been shut out of food subsidies, to access food entitlements. iii) Choice to avail ration through cashless transaction iv) Portability and choice in accessing benefits: A universal identification number gives governments the chance to offer portable food entitlements, which beneficiaries can claim wherever they are in the state. v) Improved services through increased transparency: Clear accountability and transparent monitoring significantly improves access and quality of entitlements to beneficiaries. vi) Better grievance redressal: Transparent, centralized system of grievances encourage rapid responses from governments on complaints. Benefits for FPS owners i) Focus in food entitlements shifts to commercial viability: As leakages decrease, the focus shifts to making FPS outlets more viable. ii) Growth based on monthly offtake: Portability enabled by Aadhaar, and choice for beneficiaries gives FPS outlets opportunities to expand the number of beneficiaries they cover, and the amount of food grain they sell. iii) Fewer delays and efficient allocations: The implementation of Aadhaar-based authentication and MIS create efficiencies within the system, lower delays for FPS owners in receiving supplies. iv) Village mall feature of AePDS to sell other than PDS commodities increases their turnover Benefits for government i) Elimination of ghosts/duplicates/fakes: Aadhaar-linked identification addresses long-standing problems of duplicates, ghosts and fakes in the PDS system. ii) Effective targeting: AePDS enables individual entitlement, and tailoring of benefits to beneficiaries. iii) Lower costs in procurement and storage: iv) Ease in capacity additions v) Effective monitoring: AePDS greatly improves power of vigilance committees and overall monitoring, enabling the government and public to track delays and diversions.

AePDS is developed and maintained by National Informatics Center in open source standards, so no cost for development and software are incurred. The system upgraded as per latest technology and auth 2.0 standard with total security features. Other features which show sustainability are (i) Around 1.84 Crores transactions per month processed. (ii) Coping with transaction volume growth through high end servers and optimized queries and applications, streaming replication with DR facility (iii) On an average 2 minutes is taken to process the transaction including retrieval of ration card details, beneficiary authentication, selection of multiple commodities (rice,sugar,atta,koil) ,weighment of ration (connected through Bluetooth) , receipt generation (iv) Accurate output and as per the defined format and standards of the Civil supplied Department (v) Only 1% delay in service delivery due to network related issue and in case of maintenance at UIDAI. (vi) Cost to User: Servers for hosting and ePos devices (including weighment and IRIS reader) for execution of the application are provided by department of FCS to all Fair Price Shop dealers and maintenance contact of the device for the period of 5 years. (vii) Citizen charter is being followed as per the guidelines of the department of FCS. Problem Resolution and Query: 24/7 help desk at state level and district level. (viii) Privacy & Security Policy: Encryption of data and also digital signature to sign the seeding transaction (ix) Innovation: The application is one of its kind where TPDS schemes are implemented by Aadhar authentication with finger and iris authentication. (x) e-Inclusion: At e-pos level, the application is provided with bilingual in English and local language to the user. For disabled people voice message at each step of the process is provided and for single and bed ridden patients, old persons, Village Revenue Officer authentication is provided and ration will be delivered at their door steps by the Govt. Administration. (xi) IRIS and Fusion Finger authentication also provided. Application is well streamlined and manual process has been replaced with the aadhaar enabled authentication process for issue of ration through PoS device across all the FPS for the last one year without any constraints.

Yes

1)audited by nasscom social innovative forum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkWqSqVSftE 2) By times of India a) https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/City/Vijayawada/Krishna-dist-leads-the-way-in-cashless-PDS-transactions/articleshow/54520137.cms b)https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chandigarh/haryana-finds-15-37-lakh-duplicate-pds-beneficiaries/articleshow/59168641.cms 3) UN Public Adinistration https://publicadministration.un.org/en/Research/Case-Studies/unpsacases/ctl/NominationProfilev2014/mid/1170/id/5174 4) World summit https://www.worldsummitawards.org/winner/epos-aadhaar-enabled-public-distribution-system/ 5) The complete system is audited every year by UIDAI 6) World Bank https://dbtbharat.gov.in/successstory/view?id=TlE9PQ==

Pioneer in Government Solutions AePDS has increased Transparency and effectiveness of PDS at Ration shops of Andhra Pradesh Beneficiaries avail all the information of entitlements, allocation, arrival and stock availability at FPS. Huge savings for AP Government every year with the biometric enabled foolproof system Impacted about 29000 FPS and 3.8 crore members of 1.3 Crore ration cards for PDS scheme, beneficiaries (Pregnent and lactating women and infants) in 55,580 Anganwadi centres through ICDS scheme, school going children in 43,818 Government schools through Mid Day Meal (MDM) Scheme and Food grains distribution to Government Hostels across the state. Removal of huge number of duplicate beneficiaries, resulting savings every month to the state exchequer Example of Sustainability in Government solutions to scalability level of 20-25 Lakh transactions per day Cashless transactions became very relevant in the wake of demonetisation. The system is well appreciated and hence being implemented in number of states. The team from World Bank also visited to study the application . The application has a seamless cashless integration with aadhaar which is as per the Digital India Program of Government of India

Security audits Success and Failure authentication Authentication time Transparency Correspondence Load balancing User friendliness Efficiency Volume of transactions Inclusiveness Cost effictiveness Audit trails

During development and enhancement of the software all stakeholders are involved to make it user friendly, hence sustainability is increased. Benefits for ration card holders : i) Ease in identity verification with Aadhaar biometric authentication. ii) Expanded coverage: Ease in identity verification allows poor residents who have so far been shut out of food subsidies, to access food entitlements. iii) Cashless transactions iv) Portability and choice in accessing benefits: A universal identification number gives governments the chance to offer portable food entitlements, which beneficiaries can claim wherever they are in the state. v) Improved services through increased transparency: Clear accountability and transparent monitoring significantly improves access and quality of entitlements to beneficiaries. vi) Better grievance redressal: Transparent, centralized system of grievances encourage rapid responses from governments on complaints. Benefits for FPS owners i) Focus in food entitlements shifts to commercial viability: As leakages decrease, the focus shifts to making FPS outlets more viable. ii) Growth based on monthly offtake: Portability enabled by Aadhaar, and choice for beneficiaries gives FPS outlets opportunities to expand the number of beneficiaries they cover, and the amount of food grain they sell. iii) Efficient allocations lower delays for FPS owners in receiving supplies. iv) Village mall feature of AePDS to sell other than PDS commodities increases their turnover Benefits for government i) Elimination of ghosts/duplicates/fakes: Aadhaar-linked identification addresses long-standing problems of duplicates, ghosts and fakes in the PDS system. ii) Effective targeting: Individual entitlement, and tailoring of benefits to beneficiaries. iii) Lower costs in procurement and storage: iv) Ease in capacity additions v) Effective monitoring: Greatly improves power of vigilance committees and overall monitoring, enabling the government and public to track delays and diversions. vi) various stakeholders like MLS point operators also benefitted with ease of functioning of generating release orders and maintaining stock. The system is well integrated with other government schemes such as Pensions, Scholarships, Land records , Property tax, RTA etc for six step validation and provides data for number of schemes as Aarogya sri , Labour board etc.

1. Any Government scheme is successful only when end to end computerisation is done. 2. The focus should not be only on one targeted stakeholder but the system should benifit every stakeholder involved in the system 3. Capacity building is an important aspect of developing confidence in the user and it is the key for success of the system. 4. The system should be user friendly and built with stakeholders involvement to fix all loop holes. 5. The system should go on evolving as per latest technologies and standards. AePDS continuously upgrades to latest standards such as RD 2.0 mandated by UIDAI. 6. The scheme should be implemented in phase wise manner and should be designed keeping in mind future perspective and extensibility for sustainability. 7. The future perspective of the system is to bring AePDS system of the entire country under one umbrella to have country wise portability so that monitoring of the system becomes easy. Already many states have adopted this model.