Policy UpdateAsmeet Kaur The Targeted Public Distribution System is India’s largest initiative, drafted to provide essential food grains at subsidized prices to the most vulnerable section of society. The government of India launched it in June 1997 to replace the…
Indian agriculture has long been centered around a few staple crops, primarily rice and wheat. While this heavy focus was very helpful after the Green Revolution in ensuring food security, with time it has also created many problems such as overuse of groundwater, soil exhaustion, and limited income growth for farmers.
When I first set out to explore the dynamics of food purchase, cooking and consumption in Kerala households, I imagined a straightforward path of recruiting participants, conducting interviews, and uncovering insights.
SMART-PDS is a centrally sponsored, technology-oriented reform initiative by the Department of Food & Public Distribution (DFPD), Ministry of Consumer Affairs, aimed at enhancing and consolidating the IT infrastructure of India’s Public Distribution System (PDS). With a total budget of ₹349.9 crore, the three-year (April 2023–March 2026) approved program builds on previous computerisation attempts (End-to-End TPDS and the Integrated Management of PDS/IM-PDS) and introduces a modern, standardized national platform that unifies state and central operations throughout the PDS lifecycle.
India–New Zealand Agri-Tech Innovation is emerging as more than a technical exchange; it is a contest over models of innovation and inclusion. At a time when agriculture faces the twin pressures of climate resilience and global market integration. The partnership can be transformational, but only if deliberate adaptation, rights-based data governance, and financing follow the technology. Without these, the result risks being one of two failures: techno-dumping (NZ solutions ill-fitted to India) or stalled scalability (India pilots remaining fragmented).
Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY), launched in 2017, is a central sector scheme implemented by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI). It aims to create a modern food processing ecosystem in India by reducing agricultural wastage and ensuring better returns for farmers.
The DBT-BUILDER programme, launched by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India, is a flagship initiative aimed at strengthening and modernizing life science education and research infrastructure in Indian universities. Recognizing that universities are critical hubs for capacity building, BUILDER provides financial and infrastructural support to create interdisciplinary departments in life sciences, thereby encouraging innovation and collaborative research.