Recent Trends in Food Security

Why it works technically. It requires the entitlement to be attached to a person authenticated biometrically rather than to a shop's register, which is why it depends on the digitisation described next.

Trend three: digital delivery, and the measured fall in leakage

The Economic Survey 2025-26 gives figures rather than adjectives, and these are the ones to quote.

• Aadhaar seeding: 99.8 per cent of ration cards and 98.9 per cent of beneficiaries.
• Electronic point of sale: 99.6 per cent of 5.43 lakh fair price shops are equipped with electronic point of sale devices linked to Aadhaar based biometric authentication.
• Digital distribution: over 98 per cent of monthly foodgrain distribution is conducted through these digital transactions.
• Direct benefit transfer of the subsidy itself has been tried where cash is preferred to grain: in FY24, 267.6 crore rupees was transferred directly to over 10 lakh beneficiaries in Chandigarh, Puducherry and parts of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, which the Survey describes as offering choice while reducing leakage.
• Verification: inter database integration across platforms including the Central Board of Direct Taxes, the Goods and Services Tax Network and PM-KISAN flagged 8.51 crore records for verification, and after field verification over 2.12 crore ineligible beneficiaries were removed by States and Union Territories.
• Logistics: a tool called Anna Chakra has been introduced to improve the movement of grain, raise efficiency and reduce carbon emissions.

How to use these numbers. Leakage from the public distribution system was for decades the strongest argument against it, and the argument was correct. The honest current position is that authentication and portability have removed a large part of it, that the verification exercise removed over two crore ineligible beneficiaries, and that the remaining questions are about exclusion rather than diversion. A student who repeats the old leakage figures without saying what has changed is answering a question from 2010.

Trend four: from calories to nutrition

The change of objective. The older system asked whether a household had enough cereal. The present one asks whether it is nourished, which is the utilisation pillar of [Food Security: What It Means and How India Provides It].

How it is being pursued.

• Fortification of rice distributed through the system with iron, folic acid and vitamin B12, to address anaemia, which cereals alone cannot.
• Dietary diversification. The Survey's own argument is worth reproducing: by reducing the cost of essential staples, food subsidies raise the disposable income of the covered population and so enable them to diversify into proteins, dairy and horticulture. On that reasoning the grain subsidy is a nutrition instrument indirectly, because of what it frees the household's money to buy.
• Nutrition programmes for children and mothers, which are the statutory entitlements under sections 4, 5 and 6 rather than a trend.
• The allied sector shift described in [Indian Agriculture and Its Place in the Economy], where livestock grew at 7.1 per cent and fisheries at 8.8 per cent a year over FY16 to FY25, matters here: the supply of protein rich food is growing faster than the supply of cereals.

Trend five: the cost, the stocks and the strain

What the Survey says. It records persistently high buffer stocks and rising carrying costs, with expenditure on storage and handling. This is the counterweight to everything above.

Why stocks run high. Procurement at a support price set at 1.5 times cost, from farmers who have no reason to sell elsewhere, produces more grain than the entitlement distributes. The surplus must be stored, and storage costs money every month.

The connected distortions. Assured procurement of rice and wheat keeps land under those crops in water scarce regions; and, as the Survey notes elsewhere, buffer norms and procurement have to be structured with an eye to compatibility with World Trade Organization commitments, which is a link into [The World Trade Organization].

Post harvest finance, which is the other side of the same problem: the Credit Guarantee Scheme for electronic negotiable warehouse receipt based pledge financing lets a farmer borrow against stored grain instead of selling it at harvest, and is directed particularly at small and marginal farmers, women, Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and Divyangjan farmers, and MSMEs.

Where the position stands, in one table

A worked example: a migrant worker before and after

Ramkishan is registered on a ration card in a district of Bihar and works nine months of the year on construction sites in Pune.

Before portability. His entitlement could be drawn only at the shop where the card was registered. Either his family in Bihar drew the whole household entitlement and he bought grain in Pune at market prices, which for a household near the line is a substantial loss, or the card was surrendered and the family lost it entirely. In practice the entitlement did not follow the person who most needed it.

After portability and authentication. The entitlement is attached to him and authenticated biometrically. He draws his own five kilograms at a shop in Pune; his family draws theirs in Bihar; and neither has to choose. Because 99.6 per cent of the 5.43 lakh fair price shops have an electronic point of sale device, the shop in Pune can verify him against the national record.

What remains. He must be on the list in the first place. Identification is done by States against coverage calculated on the 2011 Census, so a household that has grown or become poor since may still be outside, and no amount of portability reaches a person who was never enrolled. That is why exclusion, not leakage, is now the live question.

What beginners get wrong

"Free foodgrains are the statutory entitlement." The statute entitles a priority household to grain at Schedule I prices. The free supply is an executive scheme laid over that right, and the two should not be run together.

"Leakage makes the public distribution system pointless." That was a strong argument and it has been substantially answered: Aadhaar seeding of 99.8 per cent of ration cards, electronic point of sale in 99.6 per cent of shops, over 98 per cent of distribution digital, and over 2.12 crore ineligible beneficiaries removed after inter database verification.

"One Nation One Ration Card gives extra grain." It gives portability, not quantity. The same entitlement becomes drawable anywhere.

"High stocks are a sign of success." They are a sign of availability and a fiscal problem at once. The Survey records the carrying cost as a concern.

"Fortification is a technicality." It addresses the pillar the system has always failed, utilisation, and it is the reason a household can receive its full grain entitlement and still be anaemic.

Limits and criticism

Exclusion on a 2011 base. Coverage percentages are applied to 2011 Census population because no later census has been completed, so States that have grown are under covered.

A cereal centred entitlement cannot by itself correct a deficiency of protein and micronutrients, whatever it does for calories.

Fiscal rigidity. A statutory entitlement plus a free supply scheme makes the food subsidy very difficult to reduce, whatever the fiscal position.

Procurement distortions in cropping pattern and groundwater remain, and are the subject of the Survey's own recommendation to structure diversification with an eye to buffer norms and trade commitments.

Digitisation has its own exclusion risk, since a failed biometric authentication can deny an entitlement to a person who holds it. The remedy is a fallback procedure rather than a retreat from the technology.

Quick revision

1. Free grain: the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, begun as pandemic relief and since continued, supplies foodgrains free of cost to all beneficiaries under the Act, fully funded by the Centre, over and above the statutory entitlement at Schedule I prices.
2. Portability: One Nation One Ration Card across all 36 States and Union Territories, covering nearly 80 crore beneficiaries.
3. Digitisation: Aadhaar seeding of 99.8 per cent of ration cards and 98.9 per cent of beneficiaries; electronic point of sale in 99.6 per cent of 5.43 lakh fair price shops; over 98 per cent of monthly distribution digital.
4. Verification: inter database integration flagged 8.51 crore records, and over 2.12 crore ineligible beneficiaries were removed.
5. Cash option tried: in FY24, 267.6 crore rupees transferred to over 10 lakh beneficiaries in Chandigarh, Puducherry and parts of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
6. Logistics: the Anna Chakra tool for grain movement.
7. Nutrition: fortification of distributed rice, and diversification, on the Survey's reasoning that a cheaper staple frees income for proteins, dairy and horticulture.
8. The strain: persistently high buffer stocks and rising carrying costs; cropping and groundwater distortion; and the need to keep buffer and procurement policy compatible with World Trade Organization commitments.
9. The live problem has changed from leakage to exclusion, largely because coverage is still computed on the 2011 Census.

Test yourself

1. What are the main recent trends in Indian food security? Five. The supply of foodgrains free of cost to all beneficiaries under the National Food Security Act through the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, begun as pandemic relief and since continued and fully funded by the Centre. Nationwide portability of the entitlement under One Nation One Ration Card, now rolled out across all thirty six States and Union Territories and covering nearly eighty crore beneficiaries. Near complete digitisation of delivery, with Aadhaar seeding of 99.8 per cent of ration cards, electronic point of sale devices in 99.6 per cent of 5.43 lakh fair price shops and over 98 per cent of monthly distribution conducted digitally, together with the removal of over 2.12 crore ineligible beneficiaries after inter database verification. A shift of emphasis from calories to nutrition, through fortification of distributed rice and dietary diversification. And rising concern about persistently high buffer stocks and their carrying costs.

2. Distinguish the statutory entitlement from the free supply of foodgrains. Section 3(1) of the National Food Security Act 2013 entitles every person of a priority household to five kilograms of foodgrains a month at the subsidised prices in Schedule I, and an Antyodaya household to thirty five kilograms a month at those prices. That is a statutory right, alterable only by Parliament, and enforceable through the food security allowance under section 8 if the grain is not supplied. The supply of that grain free of charge is done under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, an executive scheme laid over the statutory right and funded by the Central Government, which waives the price the statute permits to be charged. The right and the waiver are therefore distinct: the statutory entitlement survives whatever happens to the scheme.

3. What problem does One Nation One Ration Card solve, and how? It solves the problem that an entitlement attached to a particular fair price shop is useless to a person who has migrated for work, which describes a very large part of the workforce and precisely the households the Act is meant to protect. Before portability, a migrant either did without the entitlement and bought grain at market prices, or the household left behind drew the whole quantity. Portability attaches the entitlement to the individual, authenticated biometrically against a national record, so that it can be drawn at any fair price shop in the country and a family's entitlement can be split between two locations. It has been rolled out across all thirty six States and Union Territories and covers nearly eighty crore beneficiaries, and it works only because 99.6 per cent of the 5.43 lakh shops have electronic point of sale devices linked to Aadhaar based authentication.

4. "Leakage makes the public distribution system a waste of money." Comment. The criticism was well founded for many years, and diversion of subsidised grain was the strongest single argument against the system. The current position is materially different and should be stated with figures. Aadhaar seeding covers 99.8 per cent of ration cards and 98.9 per cent of beneficiaries; 99.6 per cent of the 5.43 lakh fair price shops have electronic point of sale devices with biometric authentication; over 98 per cent of monthly distribution is conducted through those digital transactions; and inter database integration with the tax and goods and services tax systems flagged 8.51 crore records, following which States removed over 2.12 crore ineligible beneficiaries. Diversion has therefore fallen substantially. The live criticism has shifted to the opposite failure, exclusion, since coverage is still calculated on the 2011 Census and biometric failure can deny an entitlement to a person who holds it.

5. Why does the Economic Survey treat high buffer stocks as a problem rather than an achievement? Because stocks held above the buffer norm serve no security purpose and cost money continuously. Procurement at a minimum support price fixed at 1.5 times the all India weighted average cost of production, from farmers with an assured buyer, generates more grain than the entitlement distributes, and the surplus must be stored, handled and eventually disposed of, with expenditure on storage and handling rising accordingly. The stocks also reflect and reinforce a distorted cropping pattern, since assured procurement of rice and wheat keeps land under water intensive crops in regions whose groundwater cannot sustain them. And the level and structure of public stockholding has to be maintained in a form compatible with India's commitments at the World Trade Organization.

6. How is food policy addressing the utilisation dimension? Chiefly in three ways. By fortifying the rice distributed through the system with iron, folic acid and vitamin B12, so that the same quantity of grain delivers micronutrients that cereals alone do not, which addresses anaemia directly. By dietary diversification, on the reasoning the Economic Survey itself gives, that reducing the cost of the staple raises the disposable income of the covered household and enables it to buy proteins, dairy and horticultural produce, so that the grain subsidy operates as a nutrition instrument indirectly. And by the statutory nutrition entitlements under sections 4, 5 and 6 of the Act for pregnant women, lactating mothers, young children and malnourished children, delivered through anganwadis and schools. The growth of the allied sectors, livestock at 7.1 per cent and fisheries at 8.8 per cent a year over FY16 to FY25, supports all of this by expanding the supply of protein rich food.