The government proposes to use satellite-driven global positioning system (GPS) to ensure food security for all.

The proposed Food Se­curity Bill will make it ma­ndatory for centre and st­ates to manage their food grains buffer stocks, procurement, movement and delivery to consumers thro­ugh GPS data centers, technology chips and labels.

This is aimed at substa­ntially reducing pilferage, diversion of food grains to op­en market and theft the­reby leading to a major ch­ange in way our ration sho­ps function in the country.

A food ministry official confirmed, “GPS platform will be used to monitor ev­ery bag of food grains, especially rice and wheat procured and distributed to vu­lnerable sections.”

Use of GPS driven data centers and equipment will also help in stabilising pr­ices of key commodities citing the large scale hoarding, the official said. MapmyIndia has been assigned to do a pilot project in Moradabad district of UP. The company has installed the systems on 200 trucks to track possible loss of food grains midway.

“Geo-coding, a process of finding associated geog­raphic coordinates through radio-frequency identification (RFID) can track down movement of food grains in a second,” MapmyIndia MD, Rakesh Verma said.

Food Security Bill is slated for introduction in Lok Sabha during monsoon session of Parliament next mo­nth.

A ministerial group he­aded by FM Pranab Mukh­erjee will meet in third week of this month to clear the Bill. The government has estimated Rs 50,000 crore as economic cost of providing food security as promised in Congress manifesto during last Lok Sabha polls.

Both centre and states have a task cut out to manage the existing 60 million tonnes rice and wheat in buffer stocks lying in go­downs as well as distributi­on of 240 million tonnes pr­oduced annually.

A recent study of plann­ing commission has pointed out that about 57 per cent targeted beneficiaries und­er targeted PDS did not get access to subsidised food.

Not many people believe if we can manage our food economy through GPS systems. SatNav Technologies CEO Amit Prasad said, “Vehicle tracking does not happen in India like in other countries. As over 80 percent truckers and logistics providers are in the unorganised sector and they are hand in glove with wrongdoers, they go ahead and share the pilferage.”

Also the investment required to track and monitor movement of food grains through GPS is huge. As per a back of the envelope calculation, tracking about 1,000 trucks along with a data centre may involve an investment of about Rs 1.20 crore.