Bihar Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary on Wednesday, 27 May 2026, backed the Union Cabinet-approved 'Sarthak PDS Yojana', a Rs 25,530 crore scheme aimed at modernising India's Public Distribution System (PDS) to serve over 80 crore beneficiaries with greater transparency and accountability.

Context

Posting on X under the hashtag #CabinetBriefing, Choudhary described India as currently running the world's largest food security programme, reaching more than 80 crore citizens every month with subsidised rations. He wrote: 'Today India is successfully operating the world's largest food security programme, through which subsidised rations are being delivered to more than 80 crore citizens every month.'

The Chief Minister highlighted three pillars of the new scheme — technology-based reforms, an increase in the remuneration of ration dealers, and improved transportation infrastructure — as the means through which welfare delivery to the poor will be strengthened further.

Policy Backdrop

India's PDS traces its current legal foundation to the National Food Security Act of 2013, which entitled eligible households — roughly 67 per cent of the population — to subsidised food grains. The programme has since undergone successive digitisation drives, including Aadhaar-seeding of beneficiary databases and computerisation of fair-price shops, aimed at plugging leakages.

The One Nation One Ration Card portability scheme, piloted in 2019 and subsequently expanded nationwide, allowed migrant workers to access their PDS entitlements from any fair-price shop in the country. The Sarthak PDS Yojana appears to continue this trajectory, adding financial incentives for ration dealers and logistics upgrades to the existing reform stack.

The coverage figure of 80 crore beneficiaries has been cited consistently in official communications for several years, underlining the scale at which the central government operates its food subsidy architecture.

Stakeholders and Impact

The two primary groups affected by the scheme are poor and marginalised households — particularly those covered under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana segment targeting the poorest of the poor — and the network of ration dealers who operate fair-price shops across the country. An increase in dealer remuneration is expected to address long-standing complaints about thin margins that have historically contributed to diversion and leakage of subsidised grain.

For a state like Bihar, which has one of the country's largest concentrations of PDS-dependent households and a significant migrant labour population, improvements in logistics and portability carry particular significance. Choudhary framed the reforms within Prime Minister Narendra Modi's broader Antyodaya (upliftment of the last person) vision, stating that 'every poor person in the country is moving forward with dignity.'

What's Next

Attention will now shift to state-level implementation guidelines for the technology upgrades envisaged under the Sarthak PDS Yojana, including the rollout of digitised supply-chain tracking and the revised dealer-commission structure. Supplementary budget provisions for the scheme in the current fiscal cycle will also be closely watched.

Bihar's own administrative machinery will be expected to align with the central framework, making the state government's follow-through a key indicator of how quickly the Rs 25,530 crore outlay translates into on-ground change for millions of beneficiaries across the state.