Union Food and Consumer Affairs Minister Shri Pralhad Joshi launches Depot Darpan Portal

New Delhi, May 20, 2025, By Our Correspondent

Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Shri Pralhad Joshi today launched three major digital initiatives — the Depot Darpan Portal, and digital platforms Anna Mitra, and Anna Sahayata— aimed at transforming India’s Public Distribution System (PDS). The launch event, held here today, marked a significant step towards enhancing transparency, improving infrastructure, and empowering both beneficiaries and frontline workers involved in the delivery of subsidized food grains to more than 81 crore people under the National Food Security Act.In his address, Shri Joshi reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to reaching the most vulnerable segments of society, stating, “Our aim is to take the government’s welfare schemes to the last man standing. The weakest in society must benefit from our programmes,” he recalled the extensive food support provided during the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 80 crore individuals receive free food grains under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana.The Union Minister also underscored India’s extensive PDS infrastructure, pointing out that with over 5.38 lakh Fair Price Shops, the country has a distribution network larger than the population of some nations. He noted that, despite global inflationary pressures, India has maintained low inflation levels while strengthening nutritional security through measures such as the distribution of fortified rice.Referring to the recently released Household Consumption Expenditure Survey, he highlighted that household spending on food had declined by 50%, which he attributed to increased affordability and improved access to essential food items such as milk, eggs, pulses, and fish. He also stressed the impact of the One Nation One Ration Card scheme, which has enabled beneficiaries to access subsidized food grains from any part of the country, thus enhancing portability and transparency.Shri Joshi, highlighted the exercise of evaluation in Depot Darpan and said that it has a potential of Savings approximately ₹275 crore in FCI-owned Depots through process efficiencies and Income augmentation of around ₹140 crore in CWC-operated foodgrain warehouses through the optimized space utilization.In parallel with the process improvements, the evaluation has revealed critical infrastructural gaps in both FCI and CWC warehousing facilities that hinder operational efficiency and service quality. To address these gaps and to ensure that all warehouses are upgraded to an “Excellent” grading, a significant capital expenditure has been planned, budget of ₹280 crore allocated for CWC and ₹1000 crore allocated for FCI, he said.Depot Darpan is a digital self-assessment and monitoring portal aimed at empowering depot officials to systematically evaluate and enhance their operations. Designed to help food grain depots achieve the highest standards of warehousing excellence, the platform assigns a Composite Rating based on both infrastructural parameters—such as safety standards, environmental sustainability, and statutory compliance—and operational parameters like occupancy levels, profitability, and storage efficiency. Leveraging advanced technologies, Depot Darpan integrates IoT sensors for real-time monitoring of environmental and inventory conditions, CCTV surveillance for improved security, and live video feeds with analytics to support informed, data-driven decision-making and continuous improvement