The Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) is a government scheme in India designed to provide essential food grains at subsidized prices to the vulnerable sections of society. It was launched in June 1997 by the Government of India to replace the earlier universal Public Distribution System (PDS). The problem it solved was the PDS's failure to effectively reach the poor, as it suffered from an urban bias, high fiscal burden, and significant leakages, with many non-poor households availing subsidies. The TPDS shifted the approach from a universal system to a targeted approach, focusing on identifying and serving the poor.
The TPDS mechanism initially classified beneficiaries into two categories: Below Poverty Line (BPL) and Above Poverty Line (APL) families, with BPL households receiving larger quantities of food grains at highly subsidized rates. A key provision was the launch of the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) in December 2000, which targeted the "poorest of the poor" with an entitlement of 35 kg of food grains per household per month. The Central Government is responsible for the procurement and supply of food grains, while State Governments handle the identification of beneficiaries, intra-state allocation, and distribution through a network of Fair Price Shops (FPS).
The TPDS is now intrinsically connected to and largely governed by the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, which represents a paradigm shift from a welfare-based approach to a rights-based approach to food security. The NFSA, 2013 legally entitles up to 75% of the rural population and 50% of the urban population to receive subsidized food grains under the TPDS. Under the NFSA, eligible Priority Households (PHHs) are entitled to 5 kg of food grains per person per month at highly subsidized prices (rice at ₹3/kg, wheat at ₹2/kg, and coarse grains at ₹1/kg), while AAY households retain their 35 kg per family per month entitlement.
Recent changes have focused on modernization and transparency, including the implementation of the One Nation, One Ration Card (ONORC) scheme, which allows beneficiaries to collect their entitled food grains from any ePoS-enabled FPS across the country after biometric authentication. Furthermore, the government has achieved nearly 100% digitization of ration cards and beneficiary data, and around 99.8% of ration cards are seeded with Aadhaar to eliminate duplicate beneficiaries and curb leakages. The NFSA's core entitlements and the TPDS delivery mechanism have stayed the same, but the NFSA has mandated reforms like end-to-end computerization and doorstep delivery of food grains to FPSs.