The Public Distribution System (PDS) continues to be a major instrument for ensuring food security for the poor. The basic objective of shifting from a universal PDS to targeted PDS (TPDS) was to benefit the poor at acceptable budgetary cost. The success of the TPDS in meeting its stated objectives depends largely on the ability of the State Governments to identify the genuinely poor families, restricting the number of poor families to the number estimated by the Planning Commission and in putting in place an effective and efficient delivery system. If the functioning of the TPDS system is to be improved, the first step would be the correct identification of beneficiaries. Proper monitoring of the system and effective punishment against the offender would essentially be needed. The findings and policy suggestions in this book will lead to a better-informed debate and will help those concerned to come up with new and innovative approaches for making the TPDS system more effective and pro-poor.

Suman Bery (Foreword by) : Director-General, National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER), New Delhi Pramod Kumar (Author) : Parmod Kumar, PhD, is presently Professor and Head, Agricultural Development and Rural Transformation Centre, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore. Previously, he worked at the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), New Delhi for about a decade. He obtained his Post-doctorate in Economics as Sir Ratan Tata Fellow from the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi and Doctorate in Economics from the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. .