How Choice Trumped Monopoly In India's Food Security Programme
Research on India’s PDS shows that enabling choice can improve access to food welfare benefits.
Sarang Deo
Professor of Operations Management. He also serves as the Deputy Dean for Faculty and Research and as the Executive Director of the Max Institute of Healthcare Management (MIHM). His research focuses on healthcare delivery systems, with a particular interest in how operational decisions influence population-level health outcomes.
Sripad Devalkar
Associate Professor of Operations Management. His research focuses on agricultural operations and operations in the non-profit and public sectors, with a particular interest in supply chain management. He studies how operational, financial, and risk management decisions interact to influence outcomes in these contexts.
Video Summary
Many eligible families miss out on food grains under India’s Public Distribution System (PDS) because they depend on a single ration shop. This gives local agents monopoly-like control. To address the issue, some states allowed families to choose any shop. In this episode of The Big Picture, Professor Sripad Devalkar and co-researcher Rakesh Allu discuss findings from their multi-author study on how this change improved grain uptake and welfare benefits.
Authored by ISB Editorial