The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the continuation of SARTHAK-PDS as an umbrella scheme with a central outlay of ₹25,530 crore for the 16th Finance Commission cycle award period.
The scheme, formally called the Scheme for Assistance in Ration Transport and Handling-Income with Automation in PDS, will continue up to 31 March 2031.
According to a statement by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution on Wednesday, 27 May, SARTHAK-PDS will integrate two ongoing schemes linked to the public distribution system.
These include the scheme for assistance to state agencies for intra-state movement of foodgrains and fair price shop dealers’ margin under the National Food Security Act, 2013, and the Scheme for Modernization and Reforms through Technology in Public Distribution System, known as SMART PDS.
The Cabinet has also decided to revise the norms of central assistance for expenditure incurred by states and Union Territories on intra-state movement and handling of foodgrains, along with fair price shop dealers’ margin. The existing funding pattern of central assistance will continue.
The scheme is aimed at strengthening the implementation of the National Food Security Act by ensuring assured financial support for intra-state movement, handling and fair price shop dealers’ margin.
It will also support a unified, citizen-centric, intelligent and interoperable public distribution system architecture to improve last-mile service delivery, reduce leakages and strengthen food security delivery under the NFSA.
The government said SARTHAK-PDS seeks to modernise, integrate and intelligently optimise PDS operations through advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing and Blockchain.
The technology-led framework will include standardised architectures, unified databases for real-time monitoring, AI-driven grievance and analytics systems, state command control centres for data-driven oversight and ISO-certified process frameworks.
These measures are aimed at improving transparency, security and sustainability in public distribution system operations.
The government said it has a social and legal commitment to ensure access to food and nutritional security through adequate quantities of quality foodgrains. The scheme will support this commitment for 81.35 crore persons covered under the NFSA.
SARTHAK-PDS will retain and streamline the financial assistance component while placing it within a modern, technology-driven PDS ecosystem.
The government said multiple digitisation initiatives have been implemented over the past decade, including End-to-End Computerization of Targeted Public Distribution System, Integrated Management of PDS and SMART PDS.
Citizen-facing applications such as Mera Ration, Anna Mitra, Rightful Targeting Dashboard and Anna Sahayata have also been introduced as part of technology-led reforms in the food distribution system.
Since 1 April 2023, the SMART PDS scheme has served as a key technology reform platform by enabling complete digitisation of ration cards, Aadhaar seeding, fair price shop automation through e-PoS, online allocation and computerised supply-chain management across 36 states and Union Territories.
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