NEW DELHI: A Consortium led by IT hardware company HCL Infosystems has bagged an order worth `1,000 crore from the Madhya Pradesh government to set up food coupon-based targeted public distribution system (TPDS) in the state, it said on Monday. In a similar deal, the company had earlier deployed smart card-based PDS system in Chandigarh.
The government is pushing for TPDS to effectively deal with issues like duplication of ration cards and food leakage and also for timely intimation to authorities regarding irregularities. Through this system, the government intends to eliminate misuse of subsidy and improve efficiency of the supply chain.
The contract involves setting up a model of food and civil supplies distribution in Madhya Pradesh, based on the Unique Identification Authority of India’s guidelines. Other partners of the consortium include Accor Services and Virgo Softech.
“The whole objective is to make food grains available to those below poverty line (BPL) and other families,” said HCL Infosystems’ chief executive Ajai Chowdhry. He said the company has already started work on the project and delivery through this route will start in the next four to six months.
As part of the programme, while the BPL families besides those covered under the government sponsored Antyodaya Anna Yojana will get access to the scheme for free, those above the poverty line will have to pay a one-time registration fee of `250. The project will cover 50 districts and over 20,000 fair price shops in the state.
Spread over 78 months, the company expects over 10 million transactions per month (at `10.98 per family), taking the order value to around `1,000 crore. “If we can have a large number of projects with similar contract value, it will add to our visibility of revenues over the next three to four years,” said Mr Chowdhry.
The food coupons will capture biometric, tax and demographic details besides personal information, enabling authorities to ensure proper distribution of food and other benefits. Since the Madhya Pradesh government has signed an agreement with the UIDAI, all the data will be made available to UIDAI towards creation of UID cards. The project will be implemented in four phases over a period of 16 to 18 months.
The government is pushing for TPDS to effectively deal with issues like duplication of ration cards and food leakage and also for timely intimation to authorities regarding irregularities. Through this system, the government intends to eliminate misuse of subsidy and improve efficiency of the supply chain.
The contract involves setting up a model of food and civil supplies distribution in Madhya Pradesh, based on the Unique Identification Authority of India’s guidelines. Other partners of the consortium include Accor Services and Virgo Softech.
“The whole objective is to make food grains available to those below poverty line (BPL) and other families,” said HCL Infosystems’ chief executive Ajai Chowdhry. He said the company has already started work on the project and delivery through this route will start in the next four to six months.
As part of the programme, while the BPL families besides those covered under the government sponsored Antyodaya Anna Yojana will get access to the scheme for free, those above the poverty line will have to pay a one-time registration fee of `250. The project will cover 50 districts and over 20,000 fair price shops in the state.
Spread over 78 months, the company expects over 10 million transactions per month (at `10.98 per family), taking the order value to around `1,000 crore. “If we can have a large number of projects with similar contract value, it will add to our visibility of revenues over the next three to four years,” said Mr Chowdhry.
The food coupons will capture biometric, tax and demographic details besides personal information, enabling authorities to ensure proper distribution of food and other benefits. Since the Madhya Pradesh government has signed an agreement with the UIDAI, all the data will be made available to UIDAI towards creation of UID cards. The project will be implemented in four phases over a period of 16 to 18 months.