NEW DELHI, May 20 : Union Food Minister Pralhad Joshi on Tuesday launched three major digital initiatives — the Depot Darpan Portal, and digital platforms Anna Mitra, and Anna Sahayata — as part of the government’s efforts to transform Public Distribution System (PDS) through use of technology.
The launch of these initiatives marked a significant step towards enhancing transparency, improving infrastructure, and empowering both beneficiaries and frontline workers involved in the delivery of subsidised foodgrains to more than 81 crore people under the National Food Security Act.
In his address after the launch, Joshi reaffirmed the government’s commitment to reaching to the most vulnerable segments of society.
“Our aim is to take the government’s welfare schemes to the last man standing. The weakest in society must benefit from our programmes”.
Over 81 crore individuals receive free foodgrains under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana.
Joshi underscored India’s extensive PDS infrastructure, pointing out that with over 5.38 lakh Fair Price Shops (FPS) or ration shops, the country has a distribution network larger than the population of some nations.
He noted that India has maintained low inflation levels. The Centre has strengthened nutritional security through measures like distribution of fortified rice.
Referring to the recently released Household Consumption Expenditure Survey, he highlighted that household spending on food had declined by 50 per cent, which he attributed to increased affordability and improved access to essential food items such as milk, eggs, pulses, and fish.
Depot Darpan is a digital self-assessment and monitoring portal aimed at empowering depot officials to systematically evaluate and enhance their operations.
“Designed to help foodgrain depots achieve the highest standards of warehousing excellence, the platform assigns a Composite Rating based on both infrastructural parameters — such as safety standards, environmental sustainability, and statutory compliance — and operational parameters like occupancy levels, profitability, and storage efficiency,” an official statement said.
The Depot Darpan integrates IoT sensors for real-time monitoring of environmental and inventory conditions, CCTV surveillance for improved security, and live video feeds with analytics to support informed, data-driven decision-making and continuous improvement.
Food Secretary Sanjeev Chopra said the initiative reflects the vision of a Viksit Bharat and will bring about measurable improvements in depot infrastructure and operational efficiency.
A grading framework has been introduced that assesses depots on a 60:40 ratio of operational performance and infrastructure standards, he said.
Metrics include storage and transit loss, space utilization, manpower efficiency, and profitability. Depots achieving excellence will be awarded five-star ratings. Smart warehouse technologies are currently being piloted and are expected to be rolled out nationwide by the end of the year.
The food ministry said the ‘Anna Mitra’, a mobile app, will empower key field-level stakeholders of the Public Distribution System (PDS) with secure, real-time access to essential operational data.
‘Anna Sahayata’ is an advanced grievance redressal system aiming at enhancing accessibility, responsiveness, and transparency in PMGKAY beneficiaries.
In its current rollout, Anna Mitra covers four states—Assam, Uttarakhand, Tripura, and Punjab—and is available in two languages, Hindi and English whereas Anna Sahayata covers five states in pilot phase—Gujarat, Jharkhand, Telangana, Tripura, and Uttar Pradesh— and is available in five languages, Hindi, Gujarati, Telugu, Bangla and English.
Eventually both the systems will be deployed across all states/UTs as state systems will be integrated. (PTI)
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