Implementing Food Security and e-Governance Initiatives: A Comparative Study of Chhattisgarh and Telangana

Food Security is crucial in achieving the Zero Hunger, one of the crucial goals of Sustainable Development Ggoals (SDG). In the post-independent India, Public Distribution System (PDS) is an important policy intervention for providing the food security to the hunger and poor. There are certain challenges in the implementation of the PDS like corruption, leakages, ghost cards, market diversion of ration and other supply chain management issues. The paper attempts to understand the role of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools in reducing the corruption and ‘leakages’ in food security policy of India, concerning PDS programme for reducing the hunger. In the federal system of India, states play a crucial role in the implementation of the PDS programme and the states are advised to leverage the ICT tools in the National Food Security Act (NFSA). There are differences in the food policy implementation of various states by improving their information technology governance structure. Hence, a comparative study of two states–Chhattisgarh & Telangana Electronic Public Distribution System projects – will give valuable inputs for improving the policy and hence in reducing the hunger. The paper is based on the field level experiences of beneficiaries and interviews with the technocrats in both the states along with analysing the various policy documents of two states.