08-17-2017, 12:13 AM
e Ration Shop : An Automation Tool for Fair Price Shop
under the Public Distribution System in the State of
Andhra Pradesh
ABSTRACT
The Government of India in an effort to ensure fair supply of
food items to all citizens of India instituted Fair Price Shops
(FPS) under Public Distribution System (PDS). Essential
commodities such as Rice, Wheat, Sugar, Kerosene, etc., are
supplied to the targeted underprivileged sections as per the
eligibility and at fixed by the Government of India. In spite of
the best efforts by Government officials at various levels,
there are a few bottle-necks and inconveniences to the
targeted citizens in availing the services provided. The aim of
this paper is to organize and summarize existing theoretical
and empirical work on corruption with a view identifying
opportunities for further research. Computerization can help
in modernizing the PDS/ FPS. The Andhra Pradesh State has
led the way on many reforms intended to address the issues
above, and increasingly even poorer states have introduced
changes in policies and implementation mechanisms to
address the problems of PDS/ FPS[1]. This paper discusses
strategy adapted in using ICT to control diversion and leakage
in the delivery mechanism and its successful application in
computerization of food grain supply chain. The objective of
the paper is to enhance the visibility, accessibility, and
efficiency of the system by properly designing a softwaresystem,
which will streamline the process of PDS/ FPS.
INTRODUCTION
Public Distribution System (PDS) is an Indian food security
system. It is established by the Government of India under
Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food, and Public Distribution
and managed jointly with state governments in India. The
traditional PDS is used to distribute grocery items to India's
poor who are valid ration card holders. The validity and the
allocation of the ration cards is monitored by the state
governments. A ration card holder should be given 35 kg of
food grain as per the norms of PDS. However, there are
concerns about the efficiency of the distribution process. In
order to make it efficient and improve the current system of
PDS we are implementing e-Ration Shop with Biometric
device. Here we are going to use a Biometric device for
shopping purpose. Using this device card holder can get
his/her grocery items from the FPS. The main reason for using
this Biometric device and making this process computerized is
to remove the drawbacks of the present way of issuing
products based on ration card.
PROPOSED SYSTEM
e-Ration Shop with Biometric device is to give information
related to card holders and to record all transactions. In this
system, a fingerprint [3] scanner is proposed to be used as the
biometric device. Since the finger print of the citizens are
already in the database of Aadhar Card, a positive match can
be ensured each time the consumer visits the FPS. The
following are a few tasks that are considered for
implementation as a part of the proposed project to address
lacunae in present manual PDS/ FPS [2].
FINGERPRINT BIOMETRIC DEVICE
Fingerprint recognition is the technology that verifies the
identity of a person based on the fact that everyone has unique
fingerprints. It is one of the most heavily used and actively
studied biometric technologies [3].
1. Why Fingerprints?
The cost of a fingerprint based biometric system is quite low
in comparison to others like iris and face readers. Fingerprint
based systems are quite strong and can be deployed across any
kind of environment. This system is less intrusive than iris or
retina scans. Most people find it unacceptable to have their
pictures taken by video cameras or to speak into a
microphone. Finger based systems are more user friendly.
Besides, the ability to enroll multiple fingers makes this a very
flexible option. It is a proven technology and has been in use
for a long time as compared to other nascent technologies.
2. Principles of fingerprint biometrics
A fingerprint is made of a number of ridges and valleys on the
surface of the finger. Ridges are the upper skin layer segments
of the finger and valleys are the lower segments. The ridges
form so-called minutia points, ridge endings and ridge
bifurcations. Many types of minutiae exist, including dots,
islands, ponds or lakes, spurs, bridges. The uniqueness of a
fingerprint can be determined by the pattern of ridges and
furrows as well as the minutiae points. There are five basic
fingerprint patterns: arch, tented arch, left loop, right loop and
whorl. Loops make up 60% of all fingerprints, whorls account
for 30%, and arches for 10%.Fingerprints are usually
considered to be unique, with no two fingers having the exact
same dermal ridge characteristics[4].