In May 2025, Union Minister Pralhad Joshi, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution (MoCAF&PD) has launched ‘Depot Darpan’ Portal ‘Anna Mitra’ application(app) and ‘Anna Sahayata’ app, aimed at transforming India’s Public Distribution System (PDS), during the event hosted by the Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD), MoCAF&PD in New Delhi, Delhi.
- The launch of these 3 new initiatives marked a major step towards enhancing transparency, improving infrastructure, and empowering beneficiaries and frontline workers involved in the delivery of subsidized food grains under National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013.
Key Points:
i.While addressing the event, Union Minister Pralhad Joshi highlighted India’s extensive PDS infrastructure, with more than 5.38 lakh Fair Price Shops (FPS) across India.
ii.He announced that all warehouses in India are upgraded to an ‘Excellent’ grading and for which the Government of India (GoI) has allocated a budget of Rs 280 crore and Rs 1,000 for Central Warehousing Corporation (CWC) and Food Corporation of India (FCI), respectively.
About Depot Darpan Portal:
i.It is a digital self-assessment and monitoring web portal aimed to empower depot officials to systematically assess and enhance their operations.
ii.The platform is strategically designed to help food grain depots achieve the highest standards of warehousing excellence.
iii.The portal will assign a Composite Rating to food grain depots based on both infrastructural parameters like: safety standards, environmental sustainability, statutory compliance and operational parameters such as: occupancy levels, profitability, and storage efficiency.
iv.Depot Darpan will create a smooth digital monitoring ecosystem which includes Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and Closed-circuit television (CCTV) surveillance to keep track of various parameters like: Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and phosphine levels, fire hazards, humidity, unauthorized entry and temperature in real-time.
- Such features will help in ensuring security and efficiency in food grain storage.
v.Also, a grading framework has been introduced to evaluate depots on operational performance (60%) and infrastructure standards (40%), based on metrics like: storage and transit loss, space utilization, manpower efficiency and profitability.
- Based on their performance, Depots achieving excellence will be granted 5-star rating.
About Anna Mitra:
i.Anna Mitra, a mobile app, designed to meet the specific operational requirements of key stakeholders in PDS.
ii.Through this digital app, FPS dealers will be able to view stock receipts, access monthly sales reports, and receive timely alerts from authorities.
iii.The app exhibits some unique features that will provide benefits to DFSO officers like: enable them to track FPS performance, monitor and manage grievances, and access detailed beneficiary data.
iv.At present, Anna Mitra covers 4 states: Assam, Uttarakhand, Tripura, and Punjab and is available in two official languages of India i.e. in Hindi and English.
About Anna Sahayata:
i.It is an advanced citizen-first grievance redressal platform, designed to address the grievances of beneficiaries under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY).
ii.The platform is built on 3 main pillars: accessibility, accountability, and efficiency which uses advanced tools such as: WhatsApp, Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS), and Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) thus, making the whole process of lodging grievances on the platform smooth and easy.
iii.Currently, Anna Sahayata covers 5 states in pilot phase: Gujarat, Jharkhand, Telangana, Tripura, and Uttar Pradesh (UP).
- Also, it is available in 5 languages: Hindi, Gujarati, Telugu, Bangla, and English.
About Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution (MoCAF&PD):
Union Minister- Pralhad Joshi (Constituency- Dharwad, Karnataka)
Minister of State (MoS) – Banwari Lal (BL) Verma (Rajya Sabha- Uttar Pradesh, UP); Nimuben Jayantibhai Bambhaniya (Constituency- Bhavnagar, Gujarat)
