1. COREPDS -

2. Advisory Panel:Mr. Vikas Sheel Secretary (Food), Govt. of Chhattisgarh Mr. M.K Mishra SIO (NIC), Chhattisgarh Mr. Rajeev Jaiswal Joint Director, Directorate of Food Mr. G.S.Sikarwar OSD (Food) Mr. C.M.Chandrakar Manager, CGSCSCEditor:A.K.Somasekhar, Scientist National Informatics Centre, CGSCAssociates:Y.V.Shreenivas Rao, Scientist National Informatics Centre, CGSC Manish Kochar, Scientist National Informatics Centre, CGSCManuscript Preparation: M.MuralidharPublisher:Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection 3. With Best Complements FromDr. Raman Singh Honble Chief Minister of ChhattisgarhMr. Punnulal MohleHonble Minister Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer ProtectionMr. Leela Ram Bhojwani Chairman, Chhattisgarh State Civil Supplies Corporation 4. IndexSl.NoContent Page1 COREPDS in Chhattisgarh 12 10 Reasons to change my FPS 54 Journey of PDS Computerization in Chhattisgarh95 COREPDS - Use cases 106 COREPDS Process Flow Chart167 Honble Ministers poem on COREPDS178 COREPDS - Performance Indicators189 COREPDS Monitoring Reports1910COREPDS Stake Holders 2011KMS for COREPDS 2112Risk Analysis and Mitigation Strategies 2213COREPDS Costing 2414Business Continuity Plan (BCP)2515Connectivity Survey of FPS in the State2616COREPDS in Rural Areas2717COREPDS Team2819Status of COREPDS 3118Thoughts for Debate 2920Annex I Comparision of COREPDS in Chhattisgarh with other Models3221Annex II Problems in PDS and which technology cab solve them35 5. COREPDS in ChhattisgarhIntroductionComputerization of PDS Supply Chain Management was successfully implemented inChhattisgarh in 2007-08. The system has been fully operational in the State since January 2008 and stocking of Public Distribution System (PDS) commodities in 10,883 Fair Price Shops (FPS) is being closely and effectively monitored since then. The implementation of computerized system has lead to increased transparency, accountability and significant reduction in diversion of stocks. The surveys done by Right to Food and Planning Commission have both revealed that 95% people in Chhattisgarh are getting full rations as per their entitlements. The initiative was awarded the Prime Ministers Award for Excellence in Public Administration for the year 2008 -09; and the Honorable Supreme Court has also recommended replication of the Chhattisgarhmodel of Computerization of PDS Supply Chain in other States.The initiative did not include automation of FPS. COREPDS (FPSautomation in Chhattisgarh) proved to be a game changer in PDSoperations, revolutionizing PDS by empowering beneficiary withthe right to choose an FPS. The convenience that technology hasgiven to a bank account holder to withdraw money from any ATM,is being offered to a poor BPL beneficiary in COREPDS andenables her to pick up her rations from an FPS of her choice.COREPDS is operational in all 151 FPS of Raipur city as on today (as on 01.07.2012)benefiting 1.5 lakh Ration Card holders.Motivators for the InitiativePDS in Chhattisgarh had been reformed with both ICT and NON IT interventions. Even thoughthe PDS had improved in Chhattisgarh since 2008 due to the interventions, there were still thefollowing two areas of concern that motivated the State to take up the initiative-1. Beneficiary in general is getting her full entitlements, but faces following common problem(s) at FPS- FPS is not open when the beneficiary wants to take her rations, leading to additional trips. FPS declares no stock even when the FPS has sufficient stocks, leading to additional trips.4 6. The sales person does not accord due respect to the beneficiary or sometimesmisbehaves.Overcharging The sales person charges more than what is chargeable.Deliberate under-weighment of the commodities by sales person.Beneficiary may need to spend at least half a day to take commodities because oflong queues. The motivation behind the implementation of COREPDS is to solve the problems stated above. Given that these problems exist at the shop level and that their existence depends on the behavior and integrity of the shop sales person, technology alone cannot provide a solution to the problems. The problems can only be solved by empowering the beneficiary to go to any FPS of her choice by providing portability support. Whenever a beneficiary faces any of the above problems, she would be free to go to any other FPS where she gets better service. Fear of losing customers and the resulting competition among FPSs shall also eliminate the above problems and improve the services. COREPDS not only provides for capturing of real time transaction data at the FPS but also offers portability to the beneficiaries to address the above problems.2. There were clear evidences of Proxy issuances (recording an issue to a beneficiary without actually issuing to the beneficiary) before the implementation of COREPDS, mostly in case of APL allocations and Kerosene, as demand for these items is comparatively less. Another motivation behind the initiative is to save cost to the Government by checking Proxy issues with the help of Smart Card / OTP authentication.COREPDS Objectives To improve Service Delivery Primary purpose of the initiative is to improve service delivery at FPS in terms of quality of the commodities, quantity of commodities and behavior of FPS sales person with beneficiaries. To reduce Diversion To check diversion of PDS commodities by checking proxy issues. Diversion in PDS Supply chain at any stage (while procuring, storage, at the time of movement from warehouse to FPS or at FPS) is possible only when proxy issues can be recorded at an FPS. COREPDS is targeted towards elimination of diversion by using Online real time mechanical authentication, at the time of service delivery, at the FPS. To empower beneficiary4 7. The objective of COREPDS is to empower the beneficiary with the facility to pick up her rations from an FPS of her choice. This in turn introduces competition among FPS, for a larger share of beneficiaries, leading to improved service delivery at the shop. As a result, the beneficiary is not solely dependent on monitoring done by the departmental officials. In fact the beneficiary, in COREPDS, becomes a partner of the government in the process of monitoring. To Weed out Bad FPS The past system of inspection of FPSs to identify bad FPS for cancelling them has been proved to be ineffective as the inspections can attract corrupt practices and the inspectors can be managed with grafts. COREPDS is to create a system where bad performers shall automatically be weeded out as a result of competition. To Create Transparency The transaction data recorded at the shops would be put in public domain and hence COREPDS enables public scrutiny and social auditing of the FPS. The details of withdrawals are sent to Beneficiary through SMS, if mobile number is registered.Strategy Adapted In COREPDS, FPS are equipped with a POS device with GPRS connectivity. Honble ChiefMinister of Chhattisgarh has named the POS device used in COREPDS as AnnapoornaATM,as it works like ATM for food grains (clarification: Food grains are given manually by FPS butauthentication and record oftransaction on server is donethrough this POS) Each BPLbeneficiary is provided with aSmart Ration Card (SRC) andAPL beneficiary has beenregistered with her mobilenumber. BPL beneficiary can takeher rations (as per entitlement) atany FPS by producing her SRC.FPS sales person inserts the SRCin POS device. POS reads the ration card number and sends it to the server through GPRS to gether entitlement balances. FPS sales person enters the quantities to be issued to beneficiary and submits. Server updates the transaction and gives the success report. Thereafter a receipt is printed and the commodities are issued to the beneficiary. For the next transaction, the beneficiary can choose to go to another FPS as her food account balances are 4 8. maintained on the server and on her smart card (SRC or RSBY card). The same portability hasbeen offered to an APL beneficiary with the help of One Time Pin (OTP) authentication throughher mobile phone.COREPDS is designed for biometric authentication of the beneficiary using either the Aadhaarinfrastructure or Rashtriya Swasthya Beema Yojana (RSBY) biometrics. COREPDS shall workwith the smart card issued by the Food department as well as with the RSBY smart card issuedby the Health department just by linking the RSBY- URN and the Ration Card number. This notonly leads to savings in precious time and money for the Government but also relieves thebeneficiary from the burden of carrying multiple cards.PortabilityThe problems that are faced by beneficiary at FPS were mainly due to linking of beneficiary withone FPS in the earlier system. FPS did not have fear of losing a beneficiary. COREPDSempowers beneficiary by offering a right to chose FPS of her liking. This system shall createcompetition between FPS and thus improve service delivery. COREPDS enables goodperformers attract more and more customers and get more business where as bad performers losetheir business. It is worth noted here COREPDS has created an internal mechanism where badperformers are automatically weeded out and good performers are incentivized.From Development as Freedom, p 27 "A person produces the same commodities in the same way and ends up with same income and buys the same goods, she may still have very good reason to prefer the scenario of free choice over that of submission to order" Amartya Sen (Winner of the noble prize in economics)Now beneficiaries can go to FPS of their choice. Currently, about 15 % beneficiaries are takingcommodities from an FPS other than their attached FPS. 85 % beneficiaries have not changedtheir FPS. But they are taking their commodities now with their choice not by compulsion. Asper the above quote of Dr. Amartya Sen in his book Development as Freedom, people prefersituation where their choice is respected to the situations without their choice even though thesame level service is available. 4 9. Portability is provided in COREPDS not only for improving service but as a mitigation strategyfor a major risk against sustainability of the project. The main objective of any kind of FPSautomation is to check diversion of stocks at the FPS. That naturally acts against the interest ofsuch FPS agencies which earn undue profits as a result of diversion. Hence, it is not wise toassume that FPS will sincerely try to implement COREPDS. There would always be a risk thatthe FPS intentionally tries to discredit the technology (POS devices, connectivity etc.) bydeliberately not following the protocols of COREPDS. In such a case if portability is not offered,an impression would be created that the beneficiaries do not get service because of technology.No technological solution and be implemented sustainably if it creates or is seen to be creatingmore inconvenience to the genuine beneficiaries. To mitigate this risk, COREPDS offersportability. If technology is not working at one FPS due to any reason, beneficiary can go to anearby FPS where it is working. The FPS, where the system does not work, shall loose businessmaking the FPS sincerely try to run the system properly. 4 10. 10 Reasons to change my FPS, 10618 2 21 Currently 15% people are using portability option in COREPDS 5 11. AuthenticationCurrent PDS in the State is based on the manual authentication of beneficiary at FPS by seeingher ration card and photo on it. This type of authentication does not provide proof ofauthentication and is all dependent on the integrity of FPS. Mechanical authentication providesevidence that the delivery is taken place with the knowledge of beneficiary. Hence, proxywithdrawals can be checked with the help of mechanical authentication.Mechanical authentication can be of the following three types.What You Know? : In this type of authentication the person has to share a secret word toauthenticate her. The passwords to open our emails, etc come under this type ofauthentication. This type of authentication is not much useful in PDS for obvious reasons.Do you know the oldest password ever used? Yes we all know that it isKuljha Sim Sim to open the treasure by the 40 thieves in the story AliBaba 40 ThievesWhat You Have? : In this type of authentication, person is authenticated by somethingwhich he/ she is processing. Credit cards, smart cards, etc come under this type ofauthentication. If one can successfully produce a particular smart card or credit card, one isauthenticated and believed to be the genuine person. OTP sent to a mobile number does alsocome under this type of authentication as it proves the person shared the OTP is processingthe registered mobile with her. COREPDS uses this type of authentication currently andscalable to bio-metric authentication (what you are) when the State is ready with Aadhaar orRSBY. What You Are? : This authentication is based on some biometrics of the person like face, finger prints, IRIS, voice or any such type. The face & voice are widely used biometrics by human beings to authenticate a person. IRIS and finger prints are suitable biometrics for mechanical biometric authentication. As IRIS scanners are costlier, finger print biometric authentication is being widely used or being planned to use in different applications.The below table shows the comparison of diversion control in case of smart card authentication(what you have) and bio-metric authentication (what you are?).Diversion due toSmart CardBio-metric 1 Beneficiary has smart card with her, but she Can check Can check has either not demanded or she has been denied. Without beneficiarys knowledge, issue has been recordedToll Free number to lodge complaints on Food Department is 1800-233-3663 6 12. 2 Duplicate cardsCannot Cannot check as de-checkduplication has not been based on biometrics 3 Fake cards Cannot Cannot check as fakecheckcards shall be enrolled with some person 4 Smart card is forcibly taken away by FPS orCannot Can check as bio-metric mortgaged by beneficiary checkauthentication is not possibleExcept in the case 4, bio-metric authentication (without de-duplication) is equal to Smartcard authentication. And case 4 is a very small percentage, may be less than 0.1%.COREPDS, allowing 0.1% diversion, shall start FPS automation quickly and scale up to bio-metric authentication using Aadhaar infrastructure or RSBY bio-metrics, whenever they areready. Within the time biometrics are collected, Smart card authentication can return theinvestment many times, due to the possible diversion control.Finger print authentication may be a foolproof authentication method but it may sometimescreate inconvenience to genuine beneficiaries. To address the issue, department has decidedto add the following features in the system, when bio-metric authentication shall beintroduced.Provision to waive off biometric authenticationFinger print authentication mandates one of the members of the family will come to anFPS, for taking PDS commodities. It is difficult for some beneficiaries to come to FPSbecause of their age, ill health or disability for whom there should be some method ofwaiving off biometric authentication. COREPDS allows waiving off biometricauthentication by checking a flag on the Server, on the recommendation of the Districtadministration.Introduction of Friend families for biometric authenticationThe general habit of poor families is to send one person to collect PDS commodities of 3or 4 families to save time and daily wage. But this is not possible after introduction ofbiometric authentication of family members for issue of PDS commodities. To allowthis, COREPDS permits to add two friend families similar to third parties in the netbanking. Once friend family is added following a process, the friend family membercan get the other beneficiaries PDS commodities issued using the actual beneficiaryssmart card and her own biometrics.Technology may not check corruption but transparency can7 13. Allow any other beneficiaries bio-metric authorization in case false rejectionIn the paper Role of Biometric Technology in Aadhaar Authentication released byUIDAI on its official web site, it is mentioned that Finger Print Rejection Rate (FRR)will be about 6.5 % using single attempt of residents best finger and can be reduced to1 % in the case of two best fingers, three attempts. That means, in the best scenario also,one genuine beneficiary out of every 100 beneficiaries shall be denied her entitlementsbecause of technology, if finger print authentication is made compulsory for servicedelivery. That results in about 50,000 unhappy families in the State, every month,cursing the Government and the technology. In the normal case it will be 3.25 Lakhunhappy families.COREPDS addresses this issue by providing a feature to deliver PDS commodities to abeneficiary whose finger print could not be authenticated, but authorized by anotherbeneficiary with her finger print and smart card. This is to serve the genuine beneficiary,even at the risk a few proxy issues. But, they can easily be found and verified if suchcases are coming from one FPS unduly high or being authorized by only one beneficiaryin every case. Technology can increase transparency to manifold 8 14. Journey of PDS Computerization in Chhattisgarh stFeb 12007 Ration card digitization started stAug 12007 Ration card distribution started stNov 12007 VSAT Network established thDec 102007Automated allotment started stJan 212008Honorable Chief Minister inaugurated Call Centre & SMS alertsstFeb 12008 PDS supply chain computerization fully operationalMar 25th2008National workshop organized in Raipur on PDS reformse - India 2008 Award received by the department as Best ICT enabledJul 31st 2008Department of the YearProject received Manthan South Asia Award for Best e Content forOct 18th 2008DevelopmentDepartment received CSI Nihilent Award as Best e- GovernedDec 18th 2008DepartmentThe Project bagged Gold medal in National e Governance AwardsJan 12th 20092009 for Excellence in Government Process Re-EngineeringHonorable Cabinet Secretary declared the Chhattisgarh PDSMar 24th 2009Computerization as Best PracticeJul 7th 2009PC Quest recognized the project as the Best ICT Implementation stAug 1 2009Food Inspector Module launched reforming Fair Price Shop InspectionPDS reforms have been shared with the SAARC Countries in theMar 1st 2010SAARC ConferencePrime Minister Award for Excellence in Public AdministrationApr 21st 2010conferred to the team involved in PDS ComputerizationAug 2nd 2010COREPDS concept paper approved by the DepartmentApr 1st 2011Budget provision made for COREPDS in Raipur cityHonorable Supreme court ordered to implement Chhattisgarh model ofSep 11th2011PDS Supply Chain Computerization in all the States.Nov 1st 2011Pilot implementation of COREPDS in one Fair Price ShopstJan 1 2012Pilot run of Kerosene Computerization startedMar 20th 2012 Honorable Chief Minister formally inaugurated COREPDSstJul 1 2012COREPDS fully operational in all 151 FPSs of Raipur citystNov 1 2012COREPDS will be rolled out in Rajnandgaon and Durg citiesCOREPDS will be rolled out to all corporations of the city and one fullMar 31st 2013district using RSBY card as ration cardMar 31st 2015 Roll out of COREPDS throughout the stateImprovement ContinuesSuccess is a journey not a destination10 15. COREPDS - USECASESUse Case 1 : Issue PDS Commodities with SRCThis is the default method of issuing PDS commodities in COREPDS. SRC is inserted in thePOS device. POS authenticates SRC and sends ration card details to server to get food A/Cbalances. When balances are displayed on the screen, quantities to be issued are entered andsubmitted to the server. Server updates the transaction and success report is sent. Receipt isprinted and given to the beneficiary along with PDS commodities. The detailed flow chart isgiven below.Success is a journey not a destination10 16. Use Case 2 : Issue PDS Commodities without SRCThere will always be a situation where a small percentage of genuine beneficiaries do not haveSRCs because either they could not take in the distribution camps or they have lost Smart Rationcard and have not received duplicate. This use case is to serve these genuine beneficiaries evenwith the risk of a few proxy issues. These beneficiaries shall not get the advantage of portability,but can take commodities from their FPS. FPS shall enter the Ration card number and quantitiesto be issued and records the transaction in the server. The detailed flow chart is given below. 11 17. Use Case 3 : Issue PDS Commodities with OTP AuthenticationAPL Beneficiaries in COREPDS have not been given smart ration cards, but registered with theirmobile numbers. These beneficiaries also can go to any FPS with their registered mobile andclaim their entitlements. FPS enters their ration card number and submits to the server. Serversends OTP to the registered mobile number and food a/c balances to the POS device.Beneficiaries shares OTP with FPS which will be entered in POS device, along with quantities tobe issued. Server authenticates OTP and sends success report for further issue of PDScommodities to the beneficiary. The detailed flow chart is given below.12 18. Use Case 4 : Issue PDS Commodities with SRC, in Offline modeIt is true that the connectivity is good in India and increasing rapidly. But it is also a fact thatconnectivity at one place is not reliable. This use case is to continue business in case oftemporary connectivity problems at FPS. The transaction is completed offline and stored in theFPSs Smart card as well as Beneficiarys SRC. As soon as the connectivity is available thetransaction shall be updated in the server. This use case allows only a limited number oftransactions to force FPS uploads the transactions periodically. 13 19. Use Case 5 : Issue PDS Commodities with RSBY Smart CardGovernment of Chhattisgarh has decided to universalize RSBY throughout Chhattisgarh. Thatmeans every family in the State shall get one RSBY smart card. Hence department has decidedto use RSBY cards as ration cards in future, without issuing separate smart cards for PDS. Thiswill be the first successful experiment in the country that provides for synthesis between theefforts of two departments of the government to provide services to common beneficiariesthrough the same instrument. RSBY cards can also be used for offline biometric authenticationbefore issuing PDS commodities. The detailed flow chart is given below.14 20. Use Case - 6 : Receipt of PDS CommoditiesThis use case is to record receipt of PDS commodities from Chhattisgarh State Civil SuppliesCorporation or from Kerosene Dealer.Use Case - 7 : Cancel last TransactionThis is to cancel a transaction in case the figures are entered wrongly or commodities could notbe given to the beneficiary after successful transaction.Use Case - 8 : Record Storage lossThere will be cases where some portion of commodities at FPS are spoiled or stolen. Whoevermay be at fault, the commodities cannot be issued to the beneficiaries and server should showthat there are no issuable stocks at FPS. This use case is to record that kind of storage loss. Thereason of the loss shall be enquired and necessary action shall be taken to fix the responsibilityfor storage loss.Use Case -9 : ReportsReports: Daily Transactions Report. FPSs Stock Related Report. Beneficiarys Balance Report. Beneficiary Mini Statement. Daily Detailed Transaction.15 21. COREPDS Process Flow 16 22. Honble Ministers poem said at the timeof inaguration 17 23. Performance Indicators for COREPDSMeasurement of outcome is required for assessing the progress. Hence indicators should becreated to measure impact of the project in the direction of envisioned objectives. Theperformance indicators should preferably be objective in nature. The following performanceindicators are being used for monitoring COREPDS in Chhattisgarh.1. Reduction in Fake Issues Change in percentage of sale of commodities at FPS, when compared to the average of 6 months sales prior to COREPDS implementation shall be calculated which can be used to find out the actual savings due to implementation of COREPDS. (+ve indicator)2. Measurement of Portability The project envisions that the portability is the empowerment of beneficiary. It is required to measure how many people are using the empowerment and the no. of FPSs losing their business due to this portability. The following indexes will be calculated to find out the impact of Portability.Churning EffectThe % of beneficiaries taken commodities from other than attached FPSs in the totalbeneficiaries taken commodities in that month will be calculated. (+ve indicator)Weeding Out Bad FPSs:% of FPSs that have lost 25% of attached beneficiaries in total number of FPS inCOREPDS shall be measured. When some FPSs lose their business due to this portabilitythen only we can conclude that beneficiaries are getting better service and bad performersare being punished. (+ve indicator)3. Measurement of improvement in service delivery For objective measurement of service delivery improvement the following indicator shall be used.% of people getting all commodities at one time:It is an observation that beneficiaries have to visit multiple times to get differentcommodities in the present system of PDS. It is an obvious improvement in servicedelivery if beneficiary can get all the commodities (except Kerosene) at one time, savingin multiple trips and associated cost and time. Kerosene is neither sold nor preferred to bebought along with food grain commodities because of its smell. (+ve indicator)4. Annual Customer Satisfaction Survey An Annual survey will be conducted to take feedback from at least 1% of beneficiaries in COREPDS and the customer satisfaction indicator will be calculated.Measurement is important for monitoring18 24. COREPDS Monitoring Reports URL: http://cg.nic.in/pdsonline/corepdsAnalysis and reporting is very important for effective monitoring of the system. The above URLprovides reports for the sake of transparency, for monitoring of PDS operations, for knowingtechnology performance and the reports that are useful for FPS inspection.Reports for Transparency: Reports for monitoring of PDS operations: Beneficiary wise daily sale report in anList of FPSs that have reached minimum FPS level of stocks The stock position of different FPS wise monthly receipt and issue report commodities at each FPS FPS wise % of beneficiaries taken PDS Beneficiarys Food account balances commodities in the selected month reportFPS performance report Family member details of PDSReports of complaints by FPSReports on technology performance:Reports for FPS inspection: Report of server down timeStock position of FPS Report of errors occurred at POSReport of Beneficiaries served at one FPS Report of BeneficiariestakenFPS performance report commodities by different meansConsolidated report of receipt and issue of a FPS wise report of offline versus onlineFPS transactionsA rule which is not monitored, is not followed 19 25. COREPDS Stake HoldersStake Holder Department of FoodResponsibilities:Performance Indicators: Number of FPS sponsoredPolicy makingNumber of Inspections takenIntroduction of good performers% of Smart cards distributed in total cardsSmart card DistributioncreatedFPS Inspection % of signed FPS declarations uploaded (monthly)Stake Holder Chhattisgarh State Civil Supplies CorporationResponsibilities: Performance Indicators:Number of FPS - Days with zero stocks ofDelivery of PDS commodities to FPSany commodity (-ve Indicator)Operation of mobile FPS Number of Beneficiaries benefitted throughmobile FPSStake Holder National Informatics Centre, ChhattisgarhResponsibilities: Performance Indicators:Server Up time Percentage 95% of serverProviding technology solutionsup time is SLACOREPDS technology maintenance% of offline transactions in the totalCapacity building transactions (-ve Indicator)Addressing day to day technical Number of Hours of trainingproblemsNumber of FPS visitsStake Holder Fair Price ShopResponsibilities:Performance Indicators:To sell PDS commodities to any valid The % of net addition of beneficiaries overPDS beneficiary of COREPDS the total beneficiaries attached to that FPSensuring dignity and convenience ofwho received PDS commodities from anythe beneficiaryFPSTo submit signed declaration in timeTo deposit money with CGSCSC intimeStake Holder BeneficiaryResponsibilities:Performance Indicators: Smiling face of beneficiary is the ultimateTo keep watch of operations of PDS +ve performance indicator of the system Beneficiary performance shall not be monitored20 26. KMS for COREPDSWhat is KMS?KMS stands for Key Management System which is an essential component of any Smart Cardbased eco system. Smart Cards are vulnerable to duplication, cloning and fake creation without aproper KMS in place. KMS shall ensure creation of all stake holders Smart Cards with certainsecrete keys inserted, for verification of the cards, while use. In COREPDS, Beneficiarys SmartRation Card (SRC) and FPS Smart Card mutually authenticates each other, at the time of servicedelivery at FPS, to ensure the SRC is genuine not a fake or clone.Who has developed?KMS for any Smart Card based Government projects should preferably createdby a Government organisation as the Government organisations accountabilitytowards Government is more, when compared to any other privateorganisation. KMS for COREPDS has been created by Smart Card Division,NICHQ, under the able guidance of Sri. S.K.Sinha Sr. Technical Director.KMS InfrastructureKMS infrastructure has been created atDirectorate of Food as per the guidelines laid byNICHQ under the strict supervision of the teamfrom Smart Card division, NIC HQ led by Mr.Ranjeet, PSA, NICHQ.KMS infrastructure includes One Server, Oneclient, Laser Printer, Smart Card Printer, 2 SmartCard Readers, 1 Treasure Chest , KMS softwaregiven by NICHQ. SK and 4 other officers havebeen nominated by the department of Food.RSBY Cards as Smart Ration CardsAs mentioned earlier, COREPDS is designed to use RSBY cardsas Smart Ration Cards to avoid duplication of issuance of SmartCards to the same target family. NICHQ is taking necessaryaction to ensure the RSBY cards are authenticated by FPS SmartCards at FPS. 64 K RSBY cards under Mukhyamantri Rastriya Bima Yojna are being createdusing the existing ration card database in the State. Thus, linkage between RSBY URN andration card number is automatically created. Ration card details and necessary keys are writtenon the card while creating RSBY card at the distribution camps. Thus, these cards can directly beused as ration cards. Actual use will start from Nov 1st 2012.21 27. Risk Analysis and Mitigation StrategiesThe successful implementation and sustainability of any eGovernance project mainly depends onthe strength and suitability of mitigation strategies adapted by the department against variousrisks and challenges expected. COREPDS is vulnerable to 6 risks and 2 challenges, whose detailsare given below. Risk 1 Implementation of CORE PDS acts against the interest of many FPS Agencies. It is not wise to assume that FPS will sincerely try to implement COREPDS. Some FPS may try to see technology fails and genuine beneficiaries do not get their ration and technology be blamed for that. Mitigation Strategy Portability is the mitigation strategy. When one FPS says that the POS is not working, beneficiary can go to a near by FPS. FPS that cannot run COREPDS loses its business to other FPS Risk 2 In the initial days, all FPSs in an area can form a nexus and see that POS do not work Mitigation Strategy CGSCSC operates mobile FPS carrying PDS Commodities and POS devices. Whenever a report is received that many FPS are not working in one area, these Mobile FPS will be sent to that area. They serve the beneficiaries in front of the FPSs. Thus, FPS who do not run CORE PDS shall lose their business Risk 3 Competition does not help if everyone is bad. FPS may intentionally do not improve their service to prove that COREPDS is a failure and could not meet objective of improvement in service delivery Mitigation Strategy Guaranteed good performers are being introduced with the help of NGOs, CSR etc to set a bench mark for service level and thus ensure the FPS should meet that benchmark to remain in business. Risk 4 Distribution of smart cards could not be completed. A few people have lost their Smart cards and it takes a few days to re-issue a duplicate card. As a result, a few genuine beneficiaries do not have smart cards. Mitigation Strategy Allow issue with FPS card when Beneficiary Smart card is not available from the attached FPS No risk - No gain 22 28. Risk 5Unreliable connectivity. Online transactions are not possible for a few hours.Mitigation StrategyCOREPDS by design is an online system. But it allows a limited offline issues also in case ofconnectivity failure.Risk 6Too much dependency on SIMitigation Strategy NIC is developing all web services required 1st version of POS application has been developed by SI. SI handovered the source code to NIC NIC has sufficient skill set for maintenance of POS softwareChallenge 1Maintenance of POS devices. Continuation of business in case of POS failure.Mitigation StrategySufficient buffer stock of POS devices for immediate replacement in case POS failure.Challenge 2 To train 151 FPS sales men To create necessary will to change To create necessary change To create necessary awareness among beneficiariesMitigation Strategy Video training material with HCMs message, Honble Ministers message and instructions to operate POS device Public awareness through pamphlets and electronic media 4G Identity Solutions is the System Integrator for the implementation of COREPDS in Raipur city. The SI has been selected following an open tender process, which include technical evaluation and financial evaluation with strict prequalification criteria. 4G Identity Solutions could successfully complete the work within the time frame.23 29. COREPDS - COSTINGPhase I ComponentNumberCost Rs LakhSmart CardsImplementation of COREPDS in 151 POS DevicesFPS of Raipur city. Formally Software & Hardwareinaugurated by Honble Chief Minister Site Preparation etcof Chhattisgarh on March, 20th 2012 DPMUTotal CostPhase II ComponentCost Rs LakhRollout of COREPDS in 108 FPS of Smart CardsDurg and Rajnandgaon cities. POS DevicesExpected to be completed by October, Software & Hardware31st 2012 Site Preparation etcDPMUsTotal Cost Phase III Component Cost Rs LakhRollout of COREPDS in remaining Smart Cards0520 FPS of all the reamaining POS Devicescorporations of the State (Bhilai, Software & HardwareBilaspur, Korba,Ambikapur, Site Preparation etcChirimiri, Jagdalpur, ) with RSBY DPMUscards. Expected to be completed by Total CostMarch, 31st 2013Phase IV ComponentCost Rs LakhRollout of COREPDS thought the Smart CardsState leaving a few FPS where it is POS Devicesnot feasible due to left-wing Software & Hardwareextremism or infrastructure issues. Site Preparation etcExpected to be completed by March, DPMUs31st 2015 Total CostMaximum transactions registered in one day in COREPDS are 12,870 on 7th Aug 2012 24 30. Business Continuity Plan (BCP)One design constraint of COREPDS is Genuine beneficiary should never be denied herentitlements due to technical or operational issues. Keeping the above constraint in mindBCP has been formulated to continue issuing PDS commodities to genuine beneficiaries even atthe cost of possibility of a few proxy issues.1Smart Ration Cards distribution is not They can take their ration from the attached complete due to operational issues. Some FPS without a SRC using FPS card only. They genuine beneficiaries do not have SRCs however do not get benefit of portability. with them.2Some genuine beneficiaries have lost their They can take their ration from the attached SRCs and have not yet received duplicate FPS without a SRC using FPS card only, till due to some operational delays.they get a duplicate. They do not get benefit ofportability3Annapoorna-ATM is not working at one Beneficiaries can go to a near by FPS and take FPStheir ration4FPS in one area are not operating Mobile FPS operated by CGSCSC shall go to Annapoorna-ATM due to some reasons that area and serve the beneficiaries5Connectivity is not available temporarily Beneficiaries can take their ration using offline or Server is down for some time issue mode of COREPDS6Server Crash Business continues with the mirror server7Bio-metric authentication of a genuine It has been decided to allow issue ration to the beneficiary failed due to some technical beneficiary with biometric authorization of or other problems. (COREPDS shall another genuine beneficiary known to FPS implement biometric authentication using Aadhaar infrastructureorRSBY biometrics)8Total failure of technology in an area for a Director, directorate of Food, is authorised to few days permit manualoperationson therecommendation of district collector and themanual transactions are captured in the systemthrough Food Inspectors module. Our Strategy No genuine beneficiary should be denyed her entitlements because of technical or operational Issues 25 31. Connectivity Survey of FPS in the StateThe general perception is that there is no mobile connectivity in rural areas. It appears that thespread of availability of connectivity in rural areas is more than what we perceive it to be.COREPDS by design, is an online application with a provision for limited offline transactions, incase of connectivity failure. Hence, the status of connectivity in rural FPS is required to take adecision on the rollout of COREPDS in rural areas. A connectivity survey is being conducted tofind out the status of availability of connectivity at all 10,880 FPS in the State and at the sametime to capture latitude & longitude of the FPS.An application in J2ME has been developed and loaded in C5 Nokia mobiles. The surveyor hasto take that mobile to FPS and run the application by entering the FPS code. The latitude &longitude are displayed on the mobile screen and at the same time application tries to connect theserver and updates database with latitude & longitude, if connectivity is available. In that fashionwe have completed survey of 7917 FPS out of 10880 and found that 7215 of FPS have goodconnectivity (more than 90%). And everyone shall agree that mobile penetration is rapidlyincreasing and connectivity is spreading. We are sure that the connectivity at these remaining10% FPS will also be available by that time (2 years from today) we are ready to rolloutCOREPDS in that far flung areas.Location of FPS in Raipur city A typical transaction in COREPDS takes 50 seconds 26 32. COREPDS in Rural AreasCOREPDS offers portability for improvement in service delivery and mandates mechanicalauthentication for checking proxy issues. Portability of FPS in the first sight appears to beirrelevant in rural areas as even a beneficiary wants to change FPS, she has to travel more than10 KMs to find the next nearest FPS. Greater insight tells us that COREPDS with portabilityoption helps rural people in two ways.Portability proves to be very helpful for migrated labourers. Today, we do not findlarge scale migration of labour in Chhattisgarh. But, still there may be a few peopleshift their families temporarily to a new work place. COREPDS offers them a greatrelief as they can take their ration in a place where they are, using SRC or OTP.In Chhattisgarh, we find so many small villages with 50 to 100 households. Thatmeans there will be 1 FPS for about 10 villages and it is generally 10 to 15 KMsaway from the distant village. COREPDS facilitates to run mobile FPS to these smallvillages weekly once on market day. Mobile FPS serves the villages with ration attheir door steps.Mobile FPS is nothing but a truck with PDScommodities and Annapoorna ATM. GPSthat is being mandated in Annapoorna ATM for rural areas shall give exactlocation where the transfer is taken place,which enables payment of additionaltransport charges for the delivery at the doorsteps of the beneficiary, if Governmentdecides to do so. Two major issues to be addressed in the implementation of COREPDS in rural areasare connectivity and replenishing of PDS commodities. As discussed earlier, connectivity isavailable in 90% of FPS and is growing at a rapid speed. Due to road conditions and distances,sending PDS commodities to a rural FPS takes at least 2 to 3 days. It is not as easy as sending toan urban FPS. If one FPS is out of stocks due to more other FPS beneficiaries take commoditiesfrom the FPS it will be slightly difficult to replenish the FPS at the earliest. But, it is also truethat portability is less used in rural areas due to distances and necessity of sending large volumesof PDS commodities at short notice, will also be less.You are requested to be member ofCOREPDS, Chhattisgarh on facebook at www.facebook.com/COREPDS Chhattisgarhandin the mail group27 33. COREPDS team Mr. A.K.Somasekhar NIC Project LeaderManish Kochar ManishBackup Project LeaderDevelopment Team Devendra Kumar Lalita Verma Ashish Kumar Soni Amit Kumar Verma Sandeep Kumar Halder Muralidhar Kameshwer Rao Mahendra SahuMr. H.S.Tripathi, Mr. A.Maurya, NICMr. S.K. Agrawal, NICNICSI Support NETWORK SupportVC SupportAcceptance Testing & CoordinationMr. Rajeev JaiswalShikarwarChandrakarImplementation SupportFood ControllerDIODM NANRathod AFO 28 34. Thoughts for Debate1. FPS automation without portability of FPS, is not sustainable The main objective of any kind of FPS automation is to check diversion of stocks at the FPS. That naturally acts against the interest of such FPS agencies which earn undue profits as a result of diversion. Hence, it is not wise to assume that FPS will sincerely try to implement the technology. There would always be a risk that the FPS intentionally tries to discredit the technology (POS devices, connectivity etc.) by deliberately not following the protocols specified. In such a case, if portability is not offered, an impression would be created that the beneficiaries do not get service because of technology. No technological solution can be implemented sustainably if it creates or is seen to be creating more inconvenience to the genuine beneficiaries. To mitigate this risk, FPS automation should offer portability. If technology is not working at one FPS due to any reason, beneficiary can go to a near by FPS where it is working. The FPS, where the system does not work, shall loose business making the FPS sincerely try to run the system properly.2. FPS automation without portability of FPS, creates more inconvenience to the genuine beneficiary In the cases of FPS automation without offering portability, it creates more inconvenience to 90 % genuine beneficiaries to check 10% diversion. Percentages may vary from State to State. The beneficiary (who has been getting her ration earlier also) does not find any difference except more inconvenience as she has been getting same entitlements at the same FPS earlier also. Without FPS automation, a beneficiary goes back empty handed only in two cases. One is FPS is closed or second is stocks are not available. But, when FPS automation is done without offering portability, it adds three more cases that the beneficiary does not get her entitlements. FPS is open, stocks are available but POS is dysfunctional or no electricity for long hours and hence POS could not be charged or the person who operates POS is not available.3. Aadhaar based PDS Some Cocerns UIDAI concept paper proposes that a mobile like device at FPS with biometric authentication from AADHAAR server is sufficient to issue ration to a beneficiary. According to the concept paper, smart card is not essential. Technically speaking a card is not required. But, Smart Card with or without Aadhaar authentication is better because of the following points. There will be some social problems if card is eliminated and ration is issued to any of the family members of the beneficiary. In many families, we find some spoiled children or male adults addicted to drinking. Without producing any card, if ration is issued only on finger print authentication these people get the ration issued and use it for their private needs like alcohol etc. It acts against food security envisioned by the Government through PDS. Hence a physical card is a must. The card will be in the custody of a responsible person of the family, generally woman family head (as it is now with the paper ration card). Presence of a card and authorized finger print should allow drawing29 35. PDS commodities from any FPS. Card should be mandatory, finger print authentication may be optional. Aadhaar based biometric authentication is fully online. It is true that connectivity in the country is good and it is improving rapidly. But it is also a fact that connectivity at one place is not cent per cent reliable and there are some time intervals where connectivity would not be available at a place. If the technology is fully online beneficiaries can not get their entitlements in these time periods. To continue business in these short intervals of connectivity problems, we should have some offline system where transactions are temporarily stored in a smart card and later uploaded in the Server whenever connectivity is not available. There are a percentage of people (old & single, handicapped, sick etc.) who can not come to FPS to take their ration, but request people from neighborhood (who may not be same persons ever month) to bring their ration. When biometric authentication is the only authentication, either it should either be waived off or the beneficiaries should be denied ration. If a Smart card/Magnetic card like instrument is available they can be waived of biometric authentication and served with Smart Card/Magnetic card authentication. If FPS automation is wholly dependent on Aadhaar authentication, one should wait for the saturation of Aadhaar generation in an area, which is very time consuming. Hence, FPS automation should start with Smart Card authentication and should scale up to Aadhaar based bio-metric authentication whenever, wherever and to whoever Aadhaar is available.4 Biometric authentication may not be necessary in PDSIs biometric authentication really required in PDS, to transfer a few hundred rupees subsidy permonth to a poor family? Looking at the large scale diversion taking place in PDS, somemechanical authentication is indeed required to check proxy issues. That can well be donequickly with some kind of What you have authentication (Smart Cards/ Magnetic Cards). Yes,in some cases like cards are forcibly kept with FPS/ Sarpanch or in case of lost/stolen cardsbiometric authentication only check proxy issues. But, to check that small percentage ofdiversion, do we need to trouble majority of genuine beneficiaries? With the same amount of riskof fraud, we are using credit cards for transacting thousands of rupees. Banks used to operateteller counters to honor less than Rs 10000 withdrawals even without comparing the signature,for offering quick service to the genuine customer, even at the risk of a small fraction offraudulent cases. That is because of the reason that banks value customers convenience morethan the associated risk. Unfortunately, we in Government do not consider the PDS beneficiariesas customers of our service. We try to control them rather than empower them. Aadhaar seedingin the beneficiary database itself shall remove all fake/duplicate ration cards. The rest of thecases of steeling the cards, mortgage of cards can be addressed in other ways. A second thoughtis required before we mandate biometric authentication for PDS delivery. 30 36. Status of COREPDS as on 31st August 2012 (Reported Month August 2012)1Area CoveredRaipur City2No. of FPSs under COREPDS 1513No. of Beneficiaries Covered1.7 lakh4No. of Total transactions taken place so far5No. of Beneficiaries issued Ration through COREPDS in the reported month6Highest no. of transactions in a day7% of Beneficiaries used Portability in the reported month8% of BPL Beneficiaries taken their ration in the reported month9% of APL Beneficiaries taken their ration in the reported month10 % of Beneficiaries taken Kerosene11 % of FPSs that have lost more than 25% business to other FPSs12 Average no. of trips made by a Beneficiary 31 37. Annex I - Comparison of COREPDS in Chhattisgarh with other ModelsCOREPDS in Chhattisgarh HaryanaModel of FPS GujaratModel ofFPS AadhaarModelof FPSAutomationAutomation AutomationAuthentication at the time of Service DeliverySmart card based authentication Smart card and biometric Online biometric authentication Online biometric authenticationfor BPL (Including State BPL that authentication - With the facility without Smart card. after de duplication, with no smartis 70% of Ration card holders)towaiveoffbiometriccard.and OTP based authentication forauthentication to the desiredAPL, No biometric authenticationbeneficiary.is planned to start with. Butsystem is ready to use biometricauthentication using AadhaarInfrastructure as well as RSBYbiometrics whenever they areavailable, without disturbing theentire system.1. Check on Diversion It can check 90% of diversion It can check up to 95% of Same as Two.It can check 100% of diversion immediately.diversion (As it cannot eliminate once implemented. duplicate and fake ration cards, it can not be 100%)2. Portability of FPSNot Offered Beneficiary is Portability can be offered but itlinked to FPS at one time. She will be difficult to check the Offered. can change her FPS on priorgenuineness of the printed foodOffered.request. coupons at an FPS other than the FPS attached with a card.3. Improvement in service delivery at FPS 32 38. In this model beneficiary can goThis model doesnt provide any The scope for service There is a clear scope forto any FPS where she gets betterreason for improvement in improvement is dependent on how improvement in service deliveryservice. The fear of losing service delivery. The quality of portability is offered. because of portability.customers improves service at service is dependent on externalFPS. Good performers aremonitoring.incentivized and bad performersare penalized by the systemautomatically. There is a clearscope for improvement in servicedelivery because of portability.4. Inconvenience to genuine beneficiary due to automation With small added inconvenience Genuine beneficiary who hasGenuine beneficiary is now to Same as one, Beneficiary is for forcing genuine beneficiary been getting her entitlements atmake two trips, one to e-gram empowered. for smart card authentication, she the FPS earlier also, sees thiscentre for biometric authentication has now been offered the right to smart card and biometricand one to FPS for getting PDS choose an FPS. Hence smart card authentication as added commodities. authentication is seenas inconvenience, which is not empowermentrather than offering any additional facility. inconvenience because of the new right to choose.5. Scalability COREPDS is easily scalable as it This model cannot start without Same as Two.This model can start only when an does not wait for biometricbiometrics of beneficiaries and area is saturated or near saturation collection adding a few lakh her family members. Biometric with Aadhaar generation, which is beneficiaries and few thousand collection is time consumingalso time consuming and hence FPSs may be a matter of 3 to 6 activity and hence scalability is scalability is slow. months, if funds are available. At slow. the same time COREPDS can use biometric authentication wherever Aadhaar is available or RSBY card is available. 33 39. 6. Poor connectivity or Temporary connectivity failure COREPDS can continue business It can continue business as the It cannot continue business, may Has to be fully online therefore it in offline mode also.model operates only in offline work in Gujarat like states where cannot continue business andmode.connectivity is relatively reliable. hence genuine beneficiary isdenied her entitlements because oftechnology for some time at least.7. Biometric WaiverBy default there is no biometric Smart ration card has provision to Biometric authentication is only Same as Three.authentication and the same can waive offbiometricauthentication available in thisbe used where ever opted or found authentication. model. If it is to be waived offnecessary. Just by checking a flagservice should be given withoutat server biometric authenticationany authentication.can be waived off.8. SustainabilitySustainability of FPS automation Sustainability of this model is Sustainable as there no technology Same as One.is threatened by a major risk that entirely dependent on the external at FPS.it is against the interest of some pressure createdby theFPSs who are supposed to run the administration.system. COREPDS mitigates thisrisk by allowing beneficiary to goto any FPS in case of technologyis not working at one FPS.Positive in 7 itemsPositive in 3 items Positive in 4 items Positive in 5 items Positive ***34 40. Annex II - Problems in PDS and which technology can solve them A Supply Chain ComputerisationD -- COREPDS without Bio-auth B -- AADHAAR based beneficiary database E COREPDS with Bio-auth C Beneficiary Database without AADHAAR P Partially addresses the problemProblems with beneficiary databaseA BCDE1 Inclusion errors Duplicate ration cardsP2 Inclusion errors Fake ration cards 3 Inclusion errors - Cards with ineligible families4 Exclusion errors Eligible families are not given cards P5 Lack of transparency in the beneficiary database Problems faced by beneficiary at FPSA B C DE6 FPS not opened when the beneficiary wants to take 7 Declares no stock even when the FPS has stocks 8 Salesperson misbehaves with the beneficiary 9 Under weighs the commodity deliberately 10Takes a few rupees extra than chargeable 11Denys issue of commodities to beneficiary and claims that the beneficiary has been issued in FPS records12Quality of commodities deteriated at FPS intentionally by FPS or due to negligence13FPS keeps card of a beneficiary without beneficiarysknowledge and diverts the commoditiesProblems introduced at Warehouse or distribution centre ABC DE14Diversion/recycling of trucks supposed to go to FPS P 15Diversion while inter-warehouse movement16Delayed lifting 17Quality of commodities spoiled due to bad storage or due P Pto not following FIFO18Inefficient inventory management at warehouses19Poor quality of commodities accepted at warehouseP P20Lack of transparency21Favouring some FPSs with excess allocation leading to diversionProblems introduced at the state department of food ABC DE22Delayed release of allocation and its communication to the warehouses and other stake holders23Inefficient monitoring due to lack of real time dataP P24Lack of accountability - As PDS is a multi departmental activity it is difficult to fix the responsibility35 41. National Informatics Centre (NIC) of the Departmentof Information Technology is providing networkbackbone and e-Governance support to CentralGovernment,StateGovernments, UTAdministrations, Districts and other Governmentbodies. It offers a wide range of IT services includingNationwideCommunicationNetwork fordecentralised planning, improvement in Governmentservices and wider transparency of national and localGovernments. NIC assists in implementingInformation Technology Projects, in closecollaboration with Central and State Governments, inthe areas of (a) Centrally sponsored schemes andCentral sector schemes, (b) State sector and Statesponsored projects, and (c) District Administrationsponsored projects. NIC endeavors to ensure that thelatest technology in all areas of ICT is available to itsusers.NIC, Chhattisgarh State Centre is the ICT partner inthe development and implementation of this project.NIC and Government of Chhattisgarh are readyto share their experience and technology to anyother states in implementing similar system forpublic distribution. Duplication and re-inventionare the two common extravagancies in the currentICT scenario. One can avoid these two by horizontaltransfer of technology and experience from one placewhere an ICT project is successfully implemented toother parts of the country. NIC, being centralgovernment organization with its offices at all statesand union territories, has ability to transfer thetechnology and experience through out the countrywith no much effortContact for further detailsMr. M.K.Mishra SIO. NIC Chhattisgarhsio-cg@nic.in07714080238Mr. A.K.Somasekhar NIC, Chhattisgarhsom@nic.in 07714080242 42. COREPDSVision Statement We deliver Government subsidies to poor, with corporate efficiency and social service organizations empathy towards poor