 "HCL Infosystems Bags PDS Order From MP Govt")
HCL Infosystems India’s and ICT systems have announced the awarding of the contract from the Government of Madhya Pradesh for the implementing of India’s largest food-coupon based Targeted Public Distribution Systems (TPDS) in the state.
HCL Infosystems led consortium bagged this order which would involve setting up an efficient model of food & civil supplies distribution in the state based on the UIDAI guidelines, for over 10million expected transactions per month at Rs.10.98 (per transaction per family) spread over 78 months.
While the BPL & AAY families (10 million approx.) would get access to the scheme for free, the APL families (8milliion approx.) will be paying a one-time subsidised registration fee of Rs. 250 only. The deployment would not only make use of technology to increase efficiency and transparency in the current system with food coupons distributed to the BPL, AAY and APL families but also generate 50million (approx.)
UID numbers after all the verification and de-duplication process. These food coupons will capture all biometric, tax, demographic and personal information details, enabling authorities to ensure proper distribution of food rationing and other benefits. HCL Infosystems led consortium with its expertise was found best suited to deploy this unique solution, after extensive scrutiny, solution demonstration and evaluation by various committees and other state agencies.
“It gives me immense pleasure to see HCL Infosystems led consortium given this opportunity to lead the way with India’s first state wide deployment for a technology led PDS solution. Technology today has an intrinsic role to play in people’s life and it is encouraging to see the authorities enabling this change,” said J.V Ramamurthy, President and COO, HCL Infosystems.
“We really appreciate the vision of the Government of Madhya Pradesh to become the first state in India to allow technology intervention in revolutionising the PDS which is fraught with issues around efficiency and transparency. Public Distribution System is vital for sustained life of the people living below poverty line and this project is a step in the right direction to make the Public Distribution System more robust and effective, empowering the underprivileged with systems that are truly people centric.”
The project to cover the entire state (50 districts and over 20,000+ Fair Price Shops) will be implemented in four phases over the period of 16-18months. HCL Infosystems led consortium would include Accor Services Pvt. Ltd (EDENRED) and Virgo Softech Ltd that has already started work in this time bound state development critical project which would also generate employment for over 3000 people.
HCL Infosystems has poised to take on projects that need customised solutions. The company had earlier deployed India’s first Smart Card based PDS system in Chandigarh now with this selection in Madhya Pradesh as a preferred partner clearly makes it the only companying the country with experience and expertise in the field to take on citizen centric programs like Aadhar and PDS.