Sugar, wheat, even soap on a SmartCard

It is a dingy little shop piled with wheat and rice grains, granulated sugar

and grimy cans of oil —surely the last place with which you would associate an

IT initiative of any kind. Even more difficult to imagine, is the association

between the people that form the queue before the ration shop and the concept of

automation.

But for the first time in the country, ‘smart’ ration cards will be used

for the distribution of supplies through the state public distribution system (PDS)

in Kerala.

Informs Kerala civil supplies department director Sivasankaran, "The

pilot project is being launched in four ration shops in Thiruvananthapuram city

to cater to 2500 card holders. The project is being implemented by Delhi-based

IT firm ‘SmartChip’. The project will subsequently cover the entire

state." As part of the Rs 5-lakh project, the software, the implementing

company would supply terminals in ration shops and smart card readers.

As a result of the new system, the shop owner is spared the drudgery of

preparing bills and manually entering the list of items in the ledger. The

customer can walk into a shop and punch his card on the electronic machine. The

display unit will show the list of items and the corresponding quantity he is

eligible for. The customer himself can select the items and the quantities he

requires, by punching the entry on the machine. The bill will be prepared

instantly by the machine, the amount collected by the shopkeeper and the goods

disbursed.

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