Kerala among 7 states set to get digital currency-based ration purchase system
Kerala will pilot a digital currency system for ration purchases via mobile phones and e-wallets, allowing beneficiaries to select items and pay dealers digitally.
Kerala will pilot a digital currency system for ration purchases via mobile phones and e-wallets, allowing beneficiaries to select items and pay dealers digitally.
Kerala will pilot a digital currency system for ration purchases via mobile phones and e-wallets, allowing beneficiaries to select items and pay dealers digitally.
Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala is among seven states where the Centre plans to introduce a digital currency-based system for purchasing ration through mobile phones and linked e-wallets.
The system, being introduced under the Scheme for Modernisation and Reforms through Technology in Public Distribution System (SMART-PDS), will cover priority category ration card holders, including yellow (Antyodaya Anna Yojana-AAY), pink and Priority Households (PHH) card holders.
How the e-wallet works
The Centre will credit a fixed amount in digital currency to beneficiaries’ e-wallets every month for purchasing their allotted ration commodities. Beneficiaries will receive details of their monthly entitlement on their mobile phones and can select the items they need. The payment will then be transferred digitally from the e-wallet to the ration dealer.
The digital balance can be used only to purchase ration commodities.
The new system will use a modified version of the existing Electronic Point of Sale (e-PoS) software and will initially be rolled out as a pilot project in a few districts in each of the seven states.
SMART-PDS will enable the Centre to monitor commodity stocks, making it difficult for dealers to reduce allocations by claiming that items such as rice or wheat are unavailable.