Portability transactions of the Public Distribution System under One Nation One Ration Card: Why is portability working so well for Delhi?

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In 2001, Rama and his family packed their meager possessions from their home in the Eastern Indian state of Bihar. They were on their way to the capital of Delhi, where Rama had found a job as a security guard. Yet they struggled with household expenses when they landed up in the capital city. Despite having a ration card under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), the family had to wait for many years to receive their ration entitlement from Delhi, since their ration card was issued in Bihar.

Till June 2022, Rama’s family had to spend a substantial portion of their income to make several long and expensive trips back to their village in Bihar every three months to avail of their rations. Moreover, they were worried their ration card would become invalid if it became dormant due to lack of use.

However, the One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) program’s implementation changed their fate for the better, as it permits beneficiaries to obtain their rations from any fair price shop (FPS) across the country. In May 2022, a neighborhood dealer informed them that they could receive their rations in Delhi, thanks to the portability facility under the ONORC. Since then, they have successfully availed of their monthly ration in Delhi. Rama and his family no longer need to dedicate time and resources to visit their village or pay out of pocket for rations.

Rama’s story rings true for more than 330,000 interstate migrant NFSA beneficiaries who avail of their monthly ration entitlements from states other than their home.[1] These beneficiaries represent a minuscule percentage of interstate migrants in the country. As per the 2011 census, India has approximately 450 million internal migrants. While all these migrants do not need interstate portability services, a nationally representative study by MSC on ONORC pegs the potential for interstate portability transactions at 5 to 5.5 million per month.[2] Hence, the ONORC program is yet to achieve its objective of providing access to food, particularly to interstate migrant populations.

Delhi accounts for approximately 70% of the 330,000 interstate portability transactions. Indian states with larger migrant populations, such as Maharashtra and Gujarat, account for only 9% of interstate portability transactions. An FPS in Delhi conducts approximately 113 portability transactions per month compared to less than one in Maharashtra and Gujarat. Even comparable urban centers, such as Mumbai and Surat, which attract large migrant populations conduct only five and three transactions per FPS per month, respectively.[3] Despite a smaller migration population, Delhi ranks at the top with the most portability transactions conducted at FPSs.

So, what works well for Delhi?

In January 2023, MSC conducted qualitative research to identify reasons behind the wide variation in the uptake of interstate portability transactions among Indian states.[4] We analyzed three major aspects of ONORC, including stakeholder awareness, supply-side inclination, and system readiness—primarily the supply chain—to determine why Delhi had the most interstate portability transactions.

  1. Many FPSs, coupled with a dense migrant population, helped build awareness through word of mouth

Delhi has the highest number of FPSs and migrant population per sq km than other states, so awareness of interstate portability is higher (see Figure 1). Moreover, Delhi has the highest migrant population per FPS at 1,006 migrants per FPS compared to 150 for Maharashtra (see Figure 2). Although Mumbai has the highest migrant population among the major urban centers, it has only 575 migrants per FPS. The low density of migrants per FPS significantly reduces the propensity for solid word-of-mouth channels and, therefore, high awareness of portability. Most survey respondents were aware of ONORC. In Delhi, nearly every beneficiary was aware.

Beneficiaries across other states mentioned that many FPSs lack the ONORC program’s information, education, and communication (IEC) material. Any available IEC material is in the local language, which challenges migrants from other states who may not know it. Beneficiaries also mentioned that the IEC material lacks information on ONORC’s specific aspects. These aspects include interstate portability, the possibility of partial rations in both the home and destination states, and the ability to pick up the ration using the Aadhaar or ration card number for identification and authentication purposes rather than the physical ration card itself.

  1. Supply-side stakeholders create an enabling ecosystem

The government officials of the Civil Supplies Department of Delhi organized in-depth briefing sessions with FPS dealers to create local networks to circulate information among beneficiaries. FPS dealers in Delhi mentioned they had created WhatsApp groups on ration availability. FPS dealers in Thane also reported adopting the same approach, which may contribute significantly to the fact that Thane accounts for the highest number of interstate portability transactions in Maharashtra.

  1. System readiness, particularly in the supply chain, enhances efficient delivery

In all states except Telangana, FPS dealers reported a lack of provision for restocking once they had distributed the allotted quantity to beneficiaries. As a result, these FPS dealers had to deny rations to both home state and migrant beneficiaries who arrived in the later days of the cycle. However, in Delhi, the officials allow FPS dealers to request stock from nearby FPSs if additional rations are needed for distribution to migrant and home state beneficiaries. As a result, migrants in Delhi are not denied rations no matter at what point in the cycle they come for their rations.

Way forward

In light of the enabling factors uncovered in Delhi during our field research, MSC recommends a more targeted communication strategy to improve interstate portability transactions under ONORC in other states. This could take the form of a mixed communication strategy focused on beneficiaries, FPS dealers, and district-level officials. A high level of beneficiary awareness is among the major reasons why the uptake of interstate portability transactions worked well in Delhi.

For beneficiaries, targeted awareness campaigns should be promoted through the Prime Minister’s “Mann ki Baat” program to create awareness of ONORC and ensure large-scale impact. Further, the identification of migrant pockets to target bilingual communications and local-level awareness drives, such as announcements at railway and bus stations, will help strengthen word-of-mouth channels. These campaigns should emphasize specifics of portability, such as interstate and intrastate portability, partial rations, rations distributed through the Aadhaar or ration card number, and other salient features to facilitate successful interstate transactions.

States should replicate the IEC sessions conducted in Delhi to enhance stakeholder readiness on the supply side and sensitize district officials. In turn, these officials will then further the discourse with FPS dealers. These sessions should include information on the program’s salient features, portability, and the importance of creating local networks for communication. Dealers should also learn that denying rations to beneficiaries is not encouraged. Instead, they should engage with district officials to resolve system-related challenges or refer beneficiaries to neighboring FPS outlets.

Additional recommendations to ensure the ONORC program’s full use include a provision for FPS dealers to restock rations or the ability to request extra rations, as seen in Telangana, through the electronic point-of-sale devices (e-PoS) devices to make delivery more efficient for dealers. Coordination between states on ration delivery, equal treatment of beneficiaries, and resolution of IT challenges will help improve the ONORC program’s uptake, particularly interstate portability transactions

ONORC is an ambitious government program that strives to ensure food security for millions of migrants nationwide. However, four years after implementation, ONORC has some more road top cover before it can achieve its stated objective of providing migrant populations unfettered access to food rations. Inhibiting factors include low awareness on the demand side and lack of readiness on the supply side.

State governments can follow the above-suggested measures if they intend to play an integral role to ensure millions of migrants, much like Rama and his family, can reap the ONORC program’s benefits through information that is accurate, relevant, timely, and accessible.

[1] Portability transactions that occur in a state other than the home states of the beneficiaries are interstate transactions. The portability transactions that occur within the same (home) state but in an FPS other than to which the beneficiary is tagged are intrastate.

[2] MSC conducted a nationally representative study to assess ONORC’s implementation. We covered an overall sample of 5,735 citizens across 19 states.

[3] Mumbai and Surat have 2,905 and 816 FPSs, respectively.

[4] We conducted the research in five states namely Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh

What lessons can we learn from community-based adaptation approaches using Ag-techs to enhance smallholder farmers adaptive capacity?

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CRAg VC’s East Africa chapter brings together AgTech startups, investors, NGOs, and donors to strengthen smallholder farmers’ resilience to climate change in the region.

The CRAg VC is an interactive collegial platform for promising tech-enabled startups, investors, practitioners, and growth-stage entities. The virtual club seeks to provide a platform to voice their thoughts and ideas to generate solutions, upscale them, and strengthen climate resilience for smallholder farmers.

The fourth edition of our climate resilience in agriculture, East Africa Chapter, was held on 30th March 2023. Our eminent panel of experts featured Sabdiyo Dido, the Head of Gender and Inclusiveness at Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and Timoth Wafula, an Agribusiness and climate change consultant. Their conversation focused on the following:

  1. The opportunities and challenges of using community-based adaptation approaches in East Africa to build the adaptive capacity of smallholders, and
  2. Emerging lessons from the successes and failures of community-based adaptation approaches that use AgTechs for climate-resilient agriculture in East Africa.

Click on the timestamps from the webinar stream to hear specific segments.

00:00 – 07:58 Welcome note and introduction of the topic to be discussed and panelists for the webinar by Anup Singh, Regional Head-Africa, MSC (MicroSave Consulting)

07:59 – 55:05 – A panel discussion: Conversation with the panelists, moderated by Anup Singh, Regional Head-Africa, MSC

Panelists:

  • Sabdiyo Dido: Head of Gender and Inclusiveness at AGRA
  • Timoth Wafula: Agribusiness and climate change consultant

08:37 – 15:03 Sabdiyo Dido: Head of Gender and Inclusiveness at AGRA, responds to question 1: What are the opportunities and challenges of using community-based adaptation approaches in East Africa to build the adaptive capacity of smallholders?

15:20 – 21:35 Timoth Wafula: Agribusiness and climate change consultant responds to question 1: What are the opportunities and challenges of using community-based adaptation approaches in East Africa to build the adaptive capacity of smallholders?

23:00 – 27:06 Sabdiyo Dido responds to QUESTION 2: How do we harness the local knowledge of farmers and combine it with digital technologies to create more climate smart adaptation technologies?

27:53 – 33:15 Timoth Wafula responds to question 2: Should tech-enabled solutions that farmers deploy and use in local communities be funded privately or by donors?

34:05 – 40:05 Sabdiyo Dido continues to respond to Question 2: How do we harness the local knowledge of farmers and combine it with digital technologies to create more climate-smart adaptation technologies? How can we make incentives more tangible for local communities?

40:10 – 48:09 The panelists respond to a round of questions from the audience

Question 1) A critical element of advancing community-based adaptation is a focus on learning and flexibility in how programming takes place at the local levels. Have you seen instances of greater willingness among funders to accept this need for flexibility and learning as critical elements of adaptation programming?

Question 2) Climate impacts can be variable and localized, even within countries and districts. How can we realistically generalize and replicate solutions even if they are developed within Africa?

Question 3) How can we ensure the benefits of CBA interventions are distributed equitably and that marginalized groups are not left behind?

48:33 – 55:04 The panelists share their concluding remarks

55:21 – 57:15 Anup Singh, MSC Africa – Regional Head at MSC, presents the concluding remarks.

Advancing climate-resilient agriculture in India: Key lessons and challenges

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The session sought to understand good practices that helped advance climate-resilient agriculture in Bihar and elsewhere in India alongside persistent challenges due to climate change risks for smallholder farmers.

The discussion covered the following topics:

  1. MSC’s flagship work on climate-resilient agriculture, highlighting the impacts of climate change on smallholder farmers in Bihar.
  2. Promoting climate-resilient agriculture in Bihar
  3. Ways to advance funding for climate-resilient agriculture in rural areas
  4. Advancing climate resilient in agriculture in India: The way forward

Click on the timestamps from the webinar stream to hear specific segments.

Time Discussion points
00:15 – 04:08 Welcome note by Aarjan Dixit, Senior Manager at MSC’s climate change & sustainability practice.
04:17 – 18:42 Partha Ghosh, Senior Manager at MSC’s climate change & sustainability practice, presents MSC’s flagship work on climate-resilient agriculture, highlighting the impacts of climate change on smallholder farmers in Bihar.
19:58 – 27:50 Sri Anil Kumar Jha, Deputy Director at the Department of Agriculture, Government of Bihar, delivers the keynote address on the actions taken by the Government of Bihar to advance climate-resilient agriculture in the State.
27:51 – 43:13 Sri Anil Kumar Jha speaks on Bihar’s Climate Resilient Agriculture Program, which comprehensively nurtures farming practices and develops an adaptation framework to improve smallholder farmers’ resilience.
44:41 – 55:25 Rajat Shubhro Mukherjee, Advisor, Climate Change and Finance at GIZ-CAFRI, speaks about the CAFRI project initially attempted to link losses faced by farmers with climate change in financial terms but now focuses on co-producing information about climate risks and vulnerabilities with farming communities.
57:07 – 01:11:17 Dr. R B Singandhupe, Consultant with TERI and former Director at the Central Institute of Cotton Research, mentions ways to minimize water losses in irrigation through innovative irrigation techniques, such as drip irrigation, which the Government of Maharashtra has implemented in the POCRA project.
01:12:23 – 01:24:54 Discussion on advancing climate resilient in agriculture in India: The way forward
01:25:10 – 01:25:54 Conclusion and note of thanks by Aarjan Dixit
01:25:55 – 01:27:20 Closing note by Graham A.N. Wright, Founder and Group Managing Director of MSC

 

Drivers of women’s digital exclusion

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Digital financial capability—revealing teachable moments through phygital (physical + digital) channels

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Part 1 of this blog series, “Digital financial capability—using emotions to design content,” explores how DFC (digital financial capability) content design can help address people’s fear of using DFS. The blog explores the use of emotions to design the DFC solution’s content to help users absorb content better to use DFS effectively. Yet content is just one part of the DFC solution design—the other critical part is the delivery channel. We explain this second part of the DFC puzzle through two personas—Neelima (Dependents) and Abdul (Explorers).

Figure 1: Two personas with different financial traits

Homemaker Neelima depends extensively on trusted sources for financial advice, such as her husband and women from her village. She does not own a mobile phone and uses her husband’s phone to call or listen to music. She feels intimidated at the bank branch and takes her husband along when she visits the bank agent to learn about new products or services.

Unlike Neelima, Abdul is a microentrepreneur who depends extensively on his business network for financial advice. He is an active smartphone user who uses it to keep himself updated on business news. He prefers to visit the bank branch or agent for information on new products and services but has almost no time in his busy schedule. While the DFC content for both personas may remain the same, the mode and delivery vary based on how well each persona can access the device, consume digital content, and use DFS.

This blog discusses the need to identify and customize delivery channels to share DFC content efficiently with specific target groups—through the phygital, teachable, and engagement (PTE) framework. Practitioners can use the PTE framework to identify the most effective delivery mechanism to increase DFC content’s adoption among various groups.

Figure 2: The PTE framework

While designing the DFC program’s delivery, we must seek clarity on three integral elements:
I. Identifying the right combination of phygital modes: A suitable variety of physical and digital modes must be included to deliver content based on the geography and target group.
II. Identifying teachable moments: A teachable moment is the most favorable time to educate the target group when they are most conducive to learning and absorbing content.
III. Deploying suitable engagement tools: Engagement tools are a simple technique to prevent content consumption fatigue.

I. Identifying the right combination of phygital modes

The delivery design should include broader channels to deliver content, such as physical and digital training. We must identify the channels best suited to the geography and the persona. The in-person model is effective but expensive and not adequately scalable. In contrast, the digital model is low-cost and highly scalable but low on effectiveness. Learners tend to drop out because of low engagement.

In contrast, phygital models that combine physical and digital are effective, scalable, and cost-effective. MSC delivers DFC content by identifying the right combination of phygital channels. In an earlier engagement, MSC implemented a phygital delivery model for the host community for UNCDF in Tanzania, combining phygital approaches. The program covered 30,000 refugees with different content absorption abilities to enhance their financial capabilities. Likewise, our current approach recommends various delivery channels for both personas based on their preferences (as shown in Figure 3).

Figure 3: Different delivery channels for different personas—Neelima (Dependents) and Abdul (Explorers)

Table 1: The different delivery channels for Neelima and Abdul

II. Identifying the teachable moments

A teachable moment is a time that is best suited to educate the target learners. A person is most likely to learn and absorb information during these moments. Teachable moments for financial services mainly arise when one discusses DFS or does a DFS transaction.

A study by the International Journal of Science and Research suggests if we wish to identify teachable moments, we must:
a. Identify key influencers, locations, and moments of action and choice;
b. Empathize with the learner by understanding their enablers and barriers; and
c. Build a rapport to behave like a friend so that the exchange of information happens at an emotional level.

Figure 4: Teachable moments to deliver DFC content for different personas Neelima (Dependents) and Abdul (Explorers)

Table 2: The teachable moments for Neelima and Abdul

III. Deploy suitable engagement tools

Using simple and engaging techniques in activities is essential for participants to absorb the content quickly. MSC designed a communication toolbox that enables bank agents to promote products effectively to low- and medium-income users. We suggest deploying engagement tools while delivering this DFC content in several formats, as outlined in the following graphic:

Figure 5: Engagement tools to deliver DFC content

  1. Quizzes: Motivate learners to remember the content they covered; learners can take quizzes to assess what they learned through IVR, calling, or other digital modes.
  2. Experiential learning: Use prototypes or simulations to engage the personas by allowing them a safe environment to make mistakes.
  3. Collaterals: Attract learners with posters and infographics to communicate important information.
  4. Peer learning: Build engagement groups to enable peer learning and network building; develop learner-centric local cohorts to provide human interaction.
  5. Gamification: Gamify progression across modules to motivate the learners through rewards, certification, mentorship opportunities, etc.

We suggest a mix of engagement tools for each persona, as outlined in the following graphic:

Figure 6: Engagement tools to deliver DFC content for different personas Neelima (Dependents) and Abdul (Explorers)

Besides these tools, developers of DFC programs can also include more such activities. The choice of activities will depend on the participants’ persona and intervention budget.

Conclusion

Designing effective DFC solutions demands the creation of suitable content alongside the identification and customization of the delivery channels to cater to specific target groups. This blog emphasized the importance of customizing the channel for different target groups using the PTE (phygital, teachable, and engagement) framework. Through the PTE framework, practitioners can identify the most conducive delivery mechanisms to increase the adoption of DFC content to effectively address the fear of using DFS among people. Overall, designing an effective DFC program requires a combination of content and delivery channel design, focusing on creating a customized delivery model that fits the target audience’s preferences and needs.

* Surbhi and Ritika are part of MSC’s training arm Helix Institute at MSC, which specializes in developing capability development content for end-users and supply-side providers.

Decoding government support to women entrepreneurs in India

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MSC collaborated with NITI Aayog’s Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) to publish this report, which fills a critical knowledge gap by detailing the length and breadth of the Government of India’s existing support to entrepreneurs through various central and state government schemes. It identifies six key ecosystem needs of entrepreneurship promotion, training and skilling, mentoring and networking, access to finance, market linkages, and business support services. The report maps government entrepreneurship support schemes across these six needs and shares insights on ecosystem needs that remain unserved or underserved. It shares some good practices implemented by state governments to improve the access and uptake of schemes. It makes key recommendations on the design and delivery of schemes to make them more accessible and effective for women entrepreneurs.