NEWS

58th Foundation Day of the Food Corporation of India celebrated recently.

ABOUT

• Statutory body under the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.
• Set up in 1965 following the enactment of the Food Corporation Act, 1964
• Objective of fulfilling various aspects of the National Food Policy at the time.
• Headquartered in New Delhi.
• Objectives
  • Proper price support for to protect the interests of poor farmers
  • Effective distribution of foodgrains through a Public Distribution Systems (PDS)
  • Maintenance of operational and buffer stocks of food grains to ensure continued supply of essential food supply.
  • Regulation of market price for foodgrains so that the population can get them at an affordable price.
• Union food minister suggested following reforms to FCI on its annual day –
  • Change the public perception of FCI from being inefficient & corrupt to dynamic, inclusive & honest.
  • Focus on integrating end-to-end tech solutions right from procurement to delivery to achieve operational efficiency & leakage free, distribution — reduce PDS response time, beneficiary tracking etc.
  • Establish a grievance redressal mechanism to react rapidly to farmer/Farmer Producer Organisation in distress. Reaching out to farmers through “Jan Jagrukta” programmes at grass-root level to spread awareness.
  • Plan for modern infrastructure & logistics. Upgrade warehouses to international standards. Improve storage capacity for the growing need – Power backup, CCTV, robust network facility
  • Global best practices to make India a ‘Food hub’