FCI celebrates its 58th Foundation Day

The Food Corporation of India (FCI) recently celebrated its 58th Foundation Day where Piyush Goyal, Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Textiles and Commerce & Industry was present along with Minister of State Sh. Ashwini Kumar Choubey and Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti.

“Today, FCI procures nearly 1,300 LMT of wheat and paddy annually against nearly 13 LMT procured during 1965. Similarly, distribution across the country has increased from about 18LMT in 1965 to nearly 600 LMT. Even the storage capacity from 6 LMT in 1965 has increased to over 800 LMT now,” Goyal said.

Goyal mentioned five mantras for FCI’s success:

• Change the public perception of FCI from being inefficient and corrupt to dynamic, inclusive and honest.
• Focus on integrating end-to-end tech solutions right from procurement to delivery to achieve operational efficiency and leakage-free, distribution – reduce PDS response time, beneficiary tracking etc.
• Establish a grievance redressal mechanism to react rapidly to farmer/Farmer Producer Organisation in distress. Reaching out to farmers through “Jan Jagrukta” programmes at the grass-root level to spread awareness.
• Plan for modern infrastructure and logistics. 
•  Upgrade warehouses to international standards. Improve storage capacity for the growing need- Power backup, CCTV, robust network facility.

On this occasion, Sudhanshu Pandey, Secretary (Food) also addressed the officers and officials of FCI and applauded the transformation efforts being made by FCI, especially the recent initiatives to ensure transparency and enhanced efficiency which includes the introduction of HRMS of Employees, Bill Tracking System, Depot Online System, Enhancement of capacity by increasing Stack sizes, Asset Monetization, Age Testing of Rice and Direct Benefit Transfer of MSP to farmers account.