SmartPDS : AADHAR Enabled Public Distribution System

SmartPDS is a new-age intelligent product which monitors all the transactions of. SmartPDS is enabled with AADHAR and fully integrated with ePOS Handheld Devices, Electronic Weighing Machines and Biometric Devices.

SmartPDS ensures that only the eligible family members of BPL Family Card holders draw the PDS commodities. Each MLS Point / FPS / NR will have a Handheld Device (ePOS device) with connectivity to the e-POS server of the Department. This enables the beneficiaries of the FPSs/NRs to draw their commodities after duly authenticating their identity with UIDAI fingerprints.

Industry Challenges:

• Refusal/reluctance in the opening of FPS/NR when the beneficiary wishes to draw the commodities.
• Un-authorized diversion of commodities that are not drawn by the beneficiaries.
• Declaration of non-availability of stock even when the FPS has sufficient stocks.
• Non furnishing of actual closing balances by FPS.
• No workflow base for mutations / deletions / new application / new entitlement.
• At present, the accounts in respect of the subsidized food grains, sugar and kerosene distributed or sold to card holders at the FPS (the point of sale) are maintained manually and there is no fool proof arrangement to ensure that the eligible quantity of commodities are issued to the card holders at the prescribed rates and to the right beneficiaries.
• There are a more number of beneficiaries than the population in any given state of India.
• Inconsistency in citizen data collection and verification process by the departments.
• Manual process leads to time wastage, data duplication and is also error prone.
• There is no uniform solution to identify the fraud (duplicate, in-eligible, etc.) records.
• Duplicity, Errors of Exclusion and Errors of Inclusion in all welfare schemes and services delivered by government.

Prata SmartPDS Objectives:

• To purify the existing Civil Supplies departmental databases by removing the duplicates / ineligible / non-existent people.
• To remove the leakages in the existing processes and systems.
• To speed up the beneficiary verification and selection process.
• To provide the biometric based authentication services as part of service delivery and citizen verification.
• To provide online citizen profile which includes his proxy indicator details as part of beneficiary verification.
• To provide online beneficiary demographic verification and biometric authentication.
• To reduce the cost and time as part of beneficiary selection and service delivery.
• To ensure that only a genuine cardholder or his/her family member whose name is listed in the BPL Family Card can draw the commodities with the help of Aadhar technology platform, thus aiming to eliminate withdrawal of commodities by others.
• To record all FPS and Mandal Level Storage transactions electronically, which enables real time MIS on opening stock, daily sales and closing stock etc and thus aids informed decision making.
• To facilitate monthly allotment of Stock to FPSs based on real time MIS of stock position availability.
• To facilitate monitoring and detection of any fraudulent transactions.
• To establish a communication channel with beneficiaries (by way of sending SMS on arrival of goods & on purchase of goods), which promotes transparency as well as savings in time & money on account of unproductive trips to FPS by beneficiaries, for finding out stock arrival.
• To ensure that the cardholder receives exact quantities of essential commodities as per his/her entitlement.
• To implement portability for drawing Ration anywhere.
• To help bring in transparency and accountability in the overall Public Distribution System
• To provide online MIS Reports for accountability and decision making.
• To facilitate disbursal of Welfare Schemes to the reach the correct person in correct time.

SmartPDS Features:

• Issuance of new Ration Cards to BPL Families
• De-Duplication of Ration Card Data
• Update the Key Register Data based on the Survey Reports
• Dynamic Key Registers Generation
• FP Shop wise Allocation of PDS Commodities as per the Key Register
• Online MIS Reports at different levels (District/Mandal/FP Shop)
• Online Card Information based on the Card Number
• Purified BPL Family Card Data as per the Field Survey Reports

Rationalization and Issue of New BPL Family Card to beneficiates

Issue of Commodities - Manual / POS / Handheld Devices

• Beneficiaries get an SMS (if mobile number is seeded to their BPL Family Card) intimating arrival of goods at their FP Shops in local language and in English.
• FPS dealer enters the Card Number (RC No.) into POS device (Handheld device), PoS device (which is connected to e-POS server) receives data (RC No.) from the central e-POS server, details of Name, Aadhaar Number, Enrolment ID, Mobile Number of all family members are displayed on the POS device.
• If the beneficiaries' Aadhaar number has been seeded into the BPL Family Card database, it is displayed against their name. Fingerprint is captured on sensor, Aadhaar number and fingerprint are sent to UIDAI server for authentication. On successful authentication received from UIDAI, the commodities screen is displayed. Beneficiary needs to give all fingerprints for identification of Best Finger Detection when the beneficiary comes for the first time. BFD is a process to ascertain the best finger of the beneficiary for authentication.
• If the beneficiary has Enrolment ID (EID) but is yet to get the Aadhaar number, System prompts to seed the EID (if not seeded) and mobile number. After seeding EID and mobile number, system sends One Time Password (OTP) to the mobile number seeded, the beneficiary needs to enter the OTP into the POS device for authentication. On successful authentication, Commodities screen will be displayed. In case, the Beneficiary has EID but does not have Mobile Phone, the system will prompt for finger print of authorised functionary like Checking Inspector/VRA/VRO etc for authenticating the beneficiary. Beneficiaries without EID encouraged to get enrolled themselves for Aadhaar and come with EID for drawing the Ration.
• Seeding of EID and Mobile number is one time and exception cases will have to be monitored closely and necessary guidelines are to be in place to facilitate close monitoring of exceptional cases by the concerned authorities.
• In case of False Rejections, the system prompts for fingerprint of authorised functionary like Checking Inspector/VRA/VRO etc., for authenticating the beneficiary.
• Once beneficiary is authenticated, available balance commodity details are shown in the POS device against each beneficiary.
• FPS dealer enters commodities being issued and then confirms to the server
• The quantities issued will be recorded in the Central e-POS transaction database and success report is given to POS device, POS Device then generates a print/receipt showing the items, quantity, rate, date, time and total amount to be paid for further processing.
• SMS is given to the registered mobile (if any) with the card with the transaction details.
• FPSs in e-POS will be periodically replenished by the commodities sold in that period as per the system alerts to the concerned officers including Joint Collector. This event gets triggered whenever the available balance reaches to a minimum balance level. The minimum available balance quantity requires be fixing and informing to the respective stakeholders for periodical replenishment.

Integration with e-POS devices

• The e-POS device (Handheld device loaded with client side application software) located in FPS communicates with e-POS server duly using the web-services provided by e-POS server. Each e-POS device will have a unique device ID which will be mapped to a FPS in the e-POS Transaction Database.
• ePOS server maintains all transactions related to FPS, allows the department functionaries to add card holders' entitlements every month as per norms and allows beneficiary to draw his/her entitlements from assigned FPS.
• The e-POS device (Handheld device loaded with client side application software) communicates with e-POS server duly using the web services provided by e-POS server. Each ePOS device will have a unique device ID which will be mapped to a FPS in the e-POS Transaction Database.

Integration with Electronic Weighing Machine (e-Weighing Machine)

SmartPDS is integrated with Electronic Weighing Machines (e-Weighing Machines) for accuracy of quantity delivered to the BPL Card Holders.

Integration with Biometric Devices

SmartPDS is fully integrated with Biometric Devices. At the time of issue of commodities one of the family members of the BPL Family Card has to authenticate the transaction so as to avoid mis-usage of the commodities.