HCL Info wins Rs 1000 cr deal from MP Govt

NEW DELHI, INDIA: HCL Infosystems, a provider of ICT systems, today announced the awarding of the contract from the Government of Madhya Pradesh for implementing India’s largest food-coupon based Targeted Public Distribution Systems (TPDS) in the state. The deal is worth over Rs 1000 crore.

HCL Infosystems led consortium bagged this order which would involve setting up an efficient model of food and civil supplies distribution in the state based on the UIDAI guidelines, for over 10 million expected transactions per month at Rs. 10.98 (per transaction per family) spread over 78 months, said a press release. This amounts to around Rs 856 crore.

While the below poverty line (BPL) and Antyodaya Anna Yojana AAY (about 10 million) families would get access to the scheme for free, the above poverty line (APL) families (about eight million) will have to pay a one-time registration fee of Rs 250, which amounts to Rs 200 crore.

The deployment would not only make use of the technology to increase efficiency and transparency in the current system with food coupons distributed to BPL, AAY and APL families but also generate 50 million (approx.) UID numbers after all the verification and de-duplication process.

These food coupons will capture all biometric, tax, demographic and personal information details, enabling authorities to ensure proper distribution of food rationing and other benefits.

J.V Ramamurthy, president and COO, HCL Infosystems said “It gives me immense pleasure to see HCL Infosystems led consortium given this opportunity to lead the way with India’s first state wide deployment for a technology led PDS solution. Technology today has an intrinsic role to play in people’s life and it is encouraging to see the authorities enabling this change.”

He added that they really appreciate the vision of the Government of Madhya Pradesh to become the first state in India to allow technology intervention in revolutionizing the PDS which is fraught with issues around efficiency and transparency.

The foundation of TPDS has been laid to effectively deal with issues like bogus/duplicate ration cards, food leakage/manipulation timely informing authorities of any irregularities.

HCL Infosystems led consortium would include Accor Services Pvt. Ltd and Virgo Softech Ltd that has already started work in this time-bound state development critical project which would also generate employment for over 3000 people.

HCL Infosystems has been rapidly undergoing a transformation to become a leading System Integration company in the country, uniquely poised to take on projects that need customized solutions.

The company had earlier deployed India’s first Smart Card based PDS system in Chandigarh now with this selection in Madhya Pradesh as a preferred partner clearly makes it the only company in the country with experience and expertise in the field to take on citizen centric programs like Aadhar and PDS.