The Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD) and the Food Corporation of India (FCI) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the financial year 2026–27 to overhaul how India manages its foodgrain supplies. The agreement sets measurable performance targets across FCI’s operations to boost efficiency, accountability and use of modern technology. This affects everyone reliant on India’s public food distribution system, from grain procurement to storage to delivery.
What the MoU covers
The agreement establishes a performance framework with specific focus areas:
- Cutting down losses during storage of foodgrains
- Better use of available storage space
- Improving how grains are transported and moved through supply chains
- Strengthening quality checks on stored food
- Moving business processes online and adopting new IT systems for better monitoring and transparency
The MoU also directs resources toward training FCI staff to work with new technologies and modern methods of foodgrain handling. Performance targets for individual FCI depots will be tracked using the Depot Darpan Portal, a web platform that measures depot infrastructure and operational performance. The framework aims to link FCI’s results to clearly defined yearly benchmarks, encouraging continuous improvement across the organisation.
FCI, set up in 1965 under the Food Corporations Act, 1964, is the government body responsible for buying grains from farmers, storing them and distributing them for public schemes. The new MoU emphasises that because substantial public money funds these operations, every rupee of food subsidy must be spent wisely and transparently.
What this means for you
If you benefit from India’s public food distribution system—through the Public Distribution System or government food schemes—this agreement aims to ensure grain reaches you in better condition and at lower cost to the government. Better storage practices mean less wastage, improved supply chain management means faster delivery, and digital systems mean greater transparency about how foodgrains are handled. The focus on quality control also means the grain distributed should meet proper standards. In practical terms, the government is trying to make food subsidy money work harder so more resources can reach people who need them.