Of the ubiquitous Fair Price Shops (FPS) in the country, 15,300 are now working as financial service agents for the masses, a move that will accelerate the process of financial inclusion and boost digital connectivity in remote areas .
FPS license holders get additional sources of income, which will act as an incentive to stay in business and ensure wider reach of Public Distribution System (PDS).
These Common Service Centers (CSCs) are currently providing assorted electronic services to the people, including registration for Aadhar and PAN cards, booking of train tickets, music downloads, checking bank balances, and entitlement of various schemes to citizens in rural areas. including access to related information. region.
below Digital India PAHAL, Ministry of Food in collaboration with Ministry of Electronics and IT has identified at least 0.13 million FPS out of existing 0.53 million outlets which have potential for revival in CSCs.
At present, most of these reformed outlets are located in Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu.
In September, 2021, the Food Ministry had entered into an MoU with CSC e-Governance Services India – a special purpose vehicle – to enhance business opportunities and income of FPS through delivery of CSC services.
As per official figures, at present around 0.46 million CSCs are being operated by village level entrepreneurs. Around 1.5 million people across the country are now directly or indirectly working in CSCs.
“Apart from acting as a banking correspondent to provide financial services to FPS owners, there are several services to be provided under the CSC platform,” Sudhanshu Pandey, Secretary, Department of Food and Public Distribution told FE.
At present, FPS distribute an average of 60-70 million tonnes of subsidized food grains annually under the National Food Security Act to over 80 crore beneficiaries in the country. Official sources said there is scope to earn additional income from FPS as a large number of people visit these shops to get the monthly entitlement of food grains.
The Food Ministry is currently working on a plan to introduce a separate color code for FPSs, which are also used as CSCs, to identify them as public service delivery points.
Ministry, in association with the Department of Financial Services in the Ministry of Finance and state Bank of Indiahas also approved a scheme that will allow FPS dealers to access bank credit under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana, which provides loans up to Rs 10 lakh to non-corporate, non-farm, small and micro enterprises.
“Through availing Mudra loan, FPS dealers can invest in building infrastructure at the outlets for sale of essential food and non-food items, which will increase their income,” Pandey said.
As FPS is emerging as service delivery point for various services, Ministry of Food also informed Ministry of Communications to increase BharatNet connectivity to around 12,000 FPS in the States facing issues in digital functioning due to poor network connectivity Is.
Officials said discussions are underway to enable the registration of FPS dealers to work as public data offices under the Prime Minister’s WiFi Access Network Interface (PM-WANI), which will provide internet access to people in rural and remote areas. It will help in expanding the services.
Under the reforms initiated to improve targeted PDS, the government has initiated several measures such as digitization of ration cards, Aadhaar seeding of ration cards and installation of Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS) machines on FPS.